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Friday, March 29, 2024

Divorce debate heats up anew

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Never give up on an issue that you feel very passionate about.

That appears to be the mindset of Sen. Risa Hontiveros, the lone opposition member in the 19th Congress, as she filed another divorce proposal. This, after the Senate ignored last year House Bill 7303 seeking to legalize divorce in the country.

The House of Representatives passed a divorce bill during the 17th Congress, but its counterpart bill in the Senate was left to die a natural death at the committee level.

Several lawmakers had made similar attempts during the 14th, 15th, and 16th Congress. All of them failed to get their respective bills passed.

In filing yet another divorce bill, Hontiveros said spouses in failed marriages, particularly women, “should be given all the chances available in this world to find true and meaningful relationships, and build nurturing families.”

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Hontiveros insists that a divorce law would give freedom to many Filipinos, allow them to build new lives and show real respect for family and marriage.

“Not a few women have fallen victim to domestic violence and psychological abuse,” she said, citing a Philippine Statistics Authority report in 2018 that one in four women experience spousal abuse.

“Unhealthy marriages bring trauma that is passed on for generations through children…The passage of a divorce law is one of the ultimate forms of freedom we can give Filipino women. We (should) give them the real chance to turn the page,” she said.

But a divorce bill is likely to be met with stiff opposition as before.

Divorce has been a contentious issue in the Philippines for as long as we can remember. Those for it are just as fervent and unyielding in their advocacy as those against it.

The Philippines is the only other country in the world — the other is the Vatican, the seat of Catholicism — that does not have a divorce law. Does that tell us anything?

The Catholic clergy and the faithful are up in arms against the divorce bill and adamant and uncompromising in their stand.

Take a recent statement of the Council of the Laity of the Philippines: “Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on society.”

The group emphasized that marriage and family is a “gift that should be protected” and expressed the hope that the Philippines “shall forever stand as a beacon of hope for the family and society.”

Over at the Senate, it appears that the majority of senators are opposed to legalizing divorce and instead prefer a proposal to streamline the annulment process “allowed by our faith and belief,” according to Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri.

Shortening and simplifying the process of church-decreed annulment would be a “more accepted” option for his colleagues in the Senate.

If that’s the case, then a divorce bill is likely to face an uphill climb that leads to nowhere—and those in failed marriages unable to break free from chains that bind them to each other.

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