The House of Representatives approved on second reading a bill reinstituting absolute divorce in the country.
Through a voice voting, House Bill (HB) 9349, or the proposed Absolute Divorce Act, moved a step closer to plenary passage.
The bill stipulates the grounds for absolute divorce, which include psychological incapacity, irreconcilable differences, domestic or marital abuse, when one of the spouses undergoes a sex reassignment surgery or transitions from one sex to another, and separation of the spouses for at least five years.
The grounds for legal separation under the Family Code of the Philippines can also be considered grounds for absolute divorce.
These include physical violence or grossly abusive conduct, attempt to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner, to engage in prostitution; drug addiction, habitual alcoholism, or chronic gambling; and homosexuality, among others.
Senator Risa Hontiveros welcomed the development.
“Sana all (I hope all),” she said.
Hontiveros vowed “to continue to work in the Senate to pass [the] necessary though contentious legislation, despite the challenges we face.”
“It’s time to give Filipino women, men, children, and families who need it a second chance at love and life,” she said.
The Senate Committee on Women, Children, Gender Equality and Family Relations earlier approved the proposed Divorce Bill or Senate No. 2443, which Hontiveros co-authored.
Hontiveros said she is waiting for her bill sponsorship to be put on the agenda at the Senate plenary.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said it will continue to oppose the legalization of divorce in the country, saying it will only cause more harm than good to Filipino families.
The CBCP shepherds an estimated 79% of Filipinos who are Roman Catholic.
Fr. Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Public Affairs (ECPA), said that some legislators would rather focus on “breaking marriages than fixing them or strengthening marital bonds.”
“The unreasonable penchant of these legislators to the divorce bill while we are reeling from economic devastation tells me that it’s no longer about helping Filipinos rise up from economic poverty but a matter of pride and subservience to whoever is behind this measure,” he said.
“We remain steadfast in our position that divorce will never be pro-family, pro-children, and pro-marriage. Divorce is actually anti-family, anti-marriage, and anti-children,” he added.