The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill recognizing the foreign degree of termination of marriage and allowing its subsequent registration with the Philippine Civil Registry.
House Bill 7185, which passed by a 202-3 vote before Congress adjourned last March 23, seeks to amend Executive Order 209 or the Family Code of the Philippines.
The proposed amendment to Article 13 of EO 209 states: “The Filipino spouse need not seek recognition or enforcement of the foreign decree of termination of marriage. The registration of the duly authenticated foreign decree of termination in the Philippine Civil Registry shall be sufficient proof of capacity to remarry.”
Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is celebrated and a decree of termination of marriage is thereafter obtained abroad by either spouse and subsequently registered in the Philippine Civil Registry as provided in Article 13, the Filipino spouse shall likewise have capacity to remarry under Philippine Law, it added.
Article 412 of the Civil Code “shall not apply in recognizing the termination of marriages referred therein,” the amendment said.
“Any agreement on the liquidation, partition and distribution of properties of the spouses, the custody and support of common children, the delivery of their presumptive legitimes [forced share or legal rights share] included in the degree of termination of marriage shall be recognized. In the absence thereof, the provisions of the Family Code shall be in force,” it said.
The bill’s authors, led by Deputy Speaker and Taguig Rep. Pia Cayetano and Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles, said the measure, once enacted, can be availed by a Filipino who is married to a foreigner whose marriage has been terminated abroad by either spouse.
It also included Filipinos whose marriage has been terminated abroad prior to the effectivity of the proposed law; who have been divorced from a spouse who had subsequently acquired foreign citizenship; or who have subsequently acquired foreign citizenship, and who has divorced from the Filipino spouse abroad.