Senate panel approves absolute divorce bill in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - A Senate committee has approved a combined measure that calls for absolute divorce on a number of grounds. These include committing the crime of rape either before or after marriage, as well as five years of separation, whether uninterrupted or broken.

Photo by Emma Bauso

The Senate Committee on Women, children, family relations, and gender equality wrote and presented Committee Report 124, which urges support for Senate Bill 2443. The "legal termination of a marriage by a court in a legal proceeding" is how this bill defines an absolute divorce.

Both parties' statuses are considered single for all legal reasons when a divorce is granted. This covers the option to enter into a later marriage.

SB 2443 is a substitution of consolidated Senate Bills 147, 213, 237, 554, 555, 1198, and 2047 on the Dissolution of Marriage Act. It is sponsored by committee chair Sen. Risa Hontiveros.

The law places emphasis on the need for swift, low-cost, and reasonable court proceedings for the issuance of an absolute divorce. For poor litigants, this is particularly important.

The House of Representatives indicated in February that they were willing to consider a bill that would ultimately legalize divorce. It gave its approval in principle to a law allowing for divorce.

Divorce advocate Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said that "The Philippines will soon join the rest of the world in the legalization of absolute divorce after the House committee on population and family relations approved in principle several bills on divorce and dissolution of marriage".

According to a report by the news agency AFP, the Philippines is the only country outside of the Vatican City that forbids divorce. Divorce is not acceptable to the Catholic Church since it contradicts its doctrines.

The argument brought up by proponents of divorce is that it is more challenging for worried parties to leave violent or abusive partners as a result of the restriction.