The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday confirmed that foreign divorce decrees do not require judicial proceedings abroad to be recognized in the Philippines.
The High Tribunal, sitting en banc, ruled that Philippine courts can recognize divorces obtained abroad, whether through legal or administrative process or by mutual agreement.
In the case of Republic vs. Ng, penned by Associate Justice Japar B. Dimaampao, the Court clarified that “as long as the divorce is valid under the foreign spouse’s national law, it will be recognized in the Philippines for the Filipino spouse.”
The SC emphasized that “the type of divorce, whether administrative or judicial, did not matter.”
The case above involves Ruby Ng, a Filipina who married a Japanese national named Akihiro Sono in Quezon City but later moved to Japan, where they secured a “divorce decree by mutual agreement” evidenced by a Divorce Certificate issued by the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines.
The Office of the Solicitor General challenged the lower court’s decision to grant Ng’s petition for the judicial recognition of the foreign divorce and to declare her capacity to remarry.
In ruling in favor of Ng, the High Tribunal said, “Filipinos previously married to foreigners can seek judicial recognition of their foreign divorce under Article 26, paragraph 2 of the Family Code.” Article 26(2) aims to prevent a situation where a foreign spouse can remarry while the Filipino spouse remains bound by the marriage, according to the SC.
