A party-list lawmaker on Wednesday expressed indignation over the House committee approval of a consolidated bill allowing absolute divorce.
Rep. Eddie Villanueva of Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC) said “any law that will effectively downplay the inviolability or the not-to-be-broken status of the family as a social institution is directly and inherently unconstitutional.”
Besides, the deputy speaker for moral uprightness said the measure was “contrary to the deeply-held Filipino value of preserving and fighting for marriage.”
“Passing any measure that effectively negates this Constitutional mandate shall foster unabated decay in our families. Marriage, as an inviolate commitment, would now be reduced to a contractual relationship, subject to the whims of unscrupulous individuals,” Villanueva said.
The House Committee on Family and Population relations approved on Tuesday afternoon a substitute bill allowing absolute divorce. The bill provides for various grounds that will allow spouses to file for a decree of absolute divorce.
Among these are the following:
– the grounds for legal separation under Article 55 of the Family Code of the Philippines;
– the grounds for annulment of marriage under Article 45 of the Family Code of the Philippines;
– when the spouses have been separated in fact for at least five (5) years at the time the petition for absolute divorce is filed, and reconciliation is highly improbable.
– psychological incapacity of either spouse as provided for in Article 36 of the Family Code of the Philippines, whether or not the incapacity existed at the time of the marriage or supervenes after the marriage;
– when one of the spouses undergoes a gender reassignment surgery or transitions from one sex to another;
– irreconcilable marital difference which refers to substantial incompatibility of the spouses due to their intransigence or fault by holding on to divergent and divisive behavior resulting to the total breakdown of their marriage which could not be repaired despite earnest efforts to reconcile;
– domestic or marital abuse;
– when a valid foreign divorce has been secured by either the alien or Filipino spouse; and
-when a marriage is nullified or dissolved by the proper canonical tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church or any other recognized religious sect or denomination.
“While I do understand the plight of marriages that have become hostile and untenable, allowing divorce is not and will never be the answer to problematic unions. The legal remedies available such as legal separation, annulment, and declaration of nullity of marriage are sufficient to address them,” Villanueva said.
“The more pressing policy action right now is not the divorce bill, but government simply making existing remedies more accessible especially to the poor—by making the process cheaper and the resolution of cases faster,” he added.