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Divorce in the Philippines

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Divorce is a contentious issue for the Philippines, which has a predominantly Catholic population. It is not typically legally available to Filipino citizens, and annulment is the usual legal alternative. The Muslim Personal Code, however, allows for divorce for couples who got married through the Islamic rite under specific circumstances.[1] The Philippines is often cited as the "only country in the world" where divorce is illegal, aside from the Vatican City after Malta had divorce legalized in 2011.[2][3][4]

Couples may also opt for legal separation, alternatively referred to as "relative divorce", although this process does not dissolve the marriage. Relative divorce is contrasted with "absolute divorce", a setup where previously married individuals are allowed to remarry.[5]

There have been several attempts to legalize absolute divorce in the Philippine Congress.[6]

History

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Spanish colonial era

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During the Spanish era in the Philippines, absolute divorce was unrecognized. The colony was under the jurisdiction of the Siete Partidas, which only ever granted couples "relative divorce," which is mensa et thoro or legal separation and does not legally dissolve the actual marital ties. The following are the prerequisite for a relative divorce under the Siete Partidas.[5][7]

  • One spouse seeks to enter a religious order with consent from the other
  • Adultery has been committed by either spouse
  • Heresy has been demonstrated by one of the spouses, or the spouse has converted to Islam or Judaism

American colonial era

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The United States would take over the Philippines after the conclusion of the Spanish–American War. During this period Act No. 2710, or the Divorce Law, became law on March 11, 1917. The legislation provided for divorce a vinculo matrimonii or absolute divorce. Divorce permissibility was fault-based, with the following prerequisite.[7]

  • Adultery must have been committed by the wife, with criminal conviction
  • Concubinage must have been committed by the husband, with criminal conviction

Japanese occupation

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When the Japanese Empire occupied the Philippines during the World War II, the Japanese-installed Philippine Executive Commission issued Executive Order No. 141 on March 25, 1943, which repealed Act No. 2710 and expanded the divorce law in the archipelago through the new decree providing eleven grounds for a valid absolute divorce.[7] Following the end of Axis occupation of the islands and the proclamation of the revival of the Philippine Commonwealth on October 23, 1944 by General Douglas MacArthur,[5] Act No. 2710 became, once again, the prevailing law on divorce matters in the Philippines.[8]

Post-Commonwealth and contemporary era

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Following the Philippines independence from the United States in the Philippines in 1946, Act No. 2710 remained applicable for a time. Until the enactment of the Republic Act No. 386 or the Civil Code on August 30, 1950 which only allowed for legal separation or what was before known as 'relative divorce' and does not allow for absolute divorce.[5] The grounds were adultery/concubinage by a spouse and an attempt on one's life of one spouse over another. There was deliberation within the Code Commission to include provisions on absolute divorce which was opposed by conservatives.[8]

The Civil Code would be updated through the Family Code in 1987 but the newer law did not allow for absolute divorce.[8] The Civil Code allows for divorce for Muslims for a period of twenty years.

In 1977, President Ferdinand Marcos enacted the Code of Muslim Personal Laws which included absolute divorce provisions for Muslims.

Presidents Gloria Macapagal Arroyo,[9][10] Benigno Aquino III,[11][12] and Rodrigo Duterte[13] have expressed they would not support the passage of an absolute divorce bill during their presidencies, although Aquino mentioned he was open to a 'legal separation' law which would allow couples to remarry.[11]

Current president Bongbong Marcos has said that he was open to legalizing divorce when he was still a candidate for the 2022 presidential election provided that the option is not made "easy".[14]

Judicial recognition of foreign divorce decree and declaration of capacity to remarry

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The Family Code provides that Philippine courts can recognize any divorce obtained by Filipinos from foreign spouses overseas for as along as the proceeding is valid under the law of the foreign spouse's country. In addition, the regional trial court can take cognizance of a conjunctive petition for declaration of the capacity to remarry.[15]

By custom or rite of union

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Indigenous peoples

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Several indigenous peoples' cultures recognize divorce in their marriages including the Ibaloi of Benguet,[16] Tagbanwa of Palawan, Gaddangs of Nueva Vizcaya, the Kankanaeys and Bontocs of the Cordilleras, and the Manobos and B'laans of Mindanao.[7] However, the dissolution of marriages conducted under indigenous peoples' rites through divorce are not recognized by the government.[16]

Muslims

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The Code of Muslim Personal Laws of 1977 does allow for divorce for Filipino Muslims, many of who are part of the Moro people.[17] Divorce is unavailable for Muslims, including converts, who got married under the Civil Code.[18]

Transnational marriages

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Where a non-Filipino is married to a Filipino citizen and a divorce is obtained abroad by the non-Filipino spouse, the Filipino spouse can remarry under Philippine law,[19] even if the non-Filipino spouse acquired foreign citizenship after the marriage.[20]

Legalization

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Current proposals

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The following are the current proposals to legalize divorce in the current 19th Congress of the Philippines.

  • Instituting absolute divorce and dissolution of marriage in the Philippines / House Bill No. 4998 – by Davao del Norte 1st district representative Pantaleon Alvarez;[21]
  • Dissolution of Marriage Act (2022) – by Senator Risa Hontiveros; no-fault divorce; parties are not prove criminal offense or 'psychological incapacity' of one party.[22]
  • Unnumbered consolidated bill[23] – absence of no-fault provision, excluded chronic unhappiness as grounds.

Absolute Divorce Act

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On May 15, 2024, the House of Representatives in a plenary session presided by Aurelio Gonzales Jr. via voice vote approved on "Second Reading" "Edcel Lagman" House Bill 9349, the proposed "Absolute Divorce Act". As the spouses' fourth way to separate, the bill enumerated limited grounds of the petition as defined by Loreto B. Acharon: Article 45 of the Family Code on annulment of marriage, spouses' de facto 5 years separation, gender-affirming surgery by a spouse or gender transition, psychological incapacity under Article 36 of the Family Code, irreconcilable differences, domestic, marital abuse or physical violence under Republic Act 9262, the Violence against women and Their Children Act of 2004 and moral pressure to change religious or political affiliation. The legal separation grounds under the Article 97 of the New Civil Code of the Philippines (2) and Article 55 of the Family Code of the Philippines (10) are also, for now, absolute divorce grounds.[25][26][27] The bill also provides validity recognition of a foreign divorce decree by either the alien or Filipino spouse with proper authentication by the Philippine Consul.[28]

Opposition

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The legalization of divorce has been opposed on religious grounds. Among those groups who oppose it are the Roman Catholic Church.[29]

Opponents of legalization of divorce have also argued that the state sanctioning such process is unconstitutional on the basis of the provision which mandates the state to uphold the "sanctity of marriage and its being the foundation of the family".[30][31][32][33]

Views of religious groups

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Catholic Church

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The Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines through the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has historically lobbied against any legislation to legalize absolute divorce in the country viewing the sanction of the state of such process as "anti-marriage" and "anti-family".[29][34] It maintains that the process of legal separation and annulment for aggrieved married couples are sufficient.[35]

Bishop Socrates Villegas as CBCP President in 2015, in a published position argued that legalizing divorce is contrary to human rights especially of the children of divorce couples. He said that allowing divorce would deter couples from working on their relationship first. He added that children whose married parents availed legal separation are already traumatized and that divorce would allow "a total stranger" to enter their lives in a form of a new legal spouse which would make their situation worse.[36]

In May 2024, the CBCP's Fr. Jerome Secillano told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that it strongly opposes the bill's approval for being "anti-family, anti-marriage and anti-children and a betrayal of their constitutional mandate to uphold marriage and the family.”[37]

The Couples for Christ strongly opposed any divorce law in the Philippines. In June 2024, it published a manifesto stating "Marriages formed in love and mutual understanding can be happy, enduring, and fulfilling." It stressed that single parent children become victims of parental breakup resulting in permanent emotional, psychological, financial or even physical social stigma.[38]

Other Christian groups

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The Iglesia ni Cristo prohibits its members from availing divorce, and maintains that couples in a troubled marriages should work on their differences.[39][40]

Bishop Modesto Villasanta of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) meanwhile expressed that his group is open to discuss the issue of divorce. Villasanta states that it is "up to the Church on how they will teach their people the importance of marriage and not on barring its (a divorce bill's) approval".[41]

Alternatives to divorce

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While divorce is largely not recognized by the state, marriages can be ended in the Philippines through annulment or declaring it null and void. Couples can also avail of legal separation.[42]

Method Grounds Limitations Notes
Legal separation
  • Repeated violence and physical abuse
  • Sexual infidelity
  • Conviction of a criminal offense with a penalty of more than six years
  • Abandonment
 Either parties cannot remarry or have sexual relations with a third party
Declaration of nullity of marriage
  • Nonvalid marriages
    • Minors married without parental consent
    • Married by an unauthorized person
    • Bigamous marriages
    • 'Mistaken identity'
    • Incestuous marriages

Children arising from couples under voided marriages are considered as illegitimate

Annulment (Civil)
  • Minors married without parental consent
  • Individuals who have been of 'unsound mind' at the time of marriages
  • Couples married under 'deceitful circumstances'
    • Included failure of one to inform the other party:
      • Infliction of a sexually transmitted disease
      • Pregnancy involving another man
      • Criminal conviction of one party
      • Addiction
      • Impotence
      • Homosexuality
  • 'Psychological incapacity' of one party which caused the inability to perform one's marital obligations
 Annulment sought from religious institutions does not automatically void marriages.[43][44] Marriage is considered valid by the state until the point it was annulled

Opinion polling

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Divorce for couples who are "irreconcilably separated"
Date For Against Undecided Conducted by Ref.
May 2005 43% 45% 12% Social Weather Stations [45][46]
March 2011 50% 32% 16%
December 2014 60% 29% 11%
March 2015 48% 35% 17%
September 2016 55% 30% 14%
March 2017 51% 32% 17%
December 2017 55% 31% 14%
December 2019 50% 39% 12%
September 2021 46% 36% 17%
March 2023 65% 21% 15%
June 2023 55% 27% 17%
March 2024 50% 32% 17%

See also

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References

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  1. ^ The Week Staff (April 9, 2019). "Countries where divorce is illegal". The Week. Retrieved May 25, 2024.
  2. ^ Santos, Ana (June 25, 2015). "The Only Country in the World That Bans Divorce". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  3. ^ "The Philippines: a global holdout in divorce". New Internationalist. July 5, 2011. Archived from the original on April 15, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
  4. ^ Hundley, Tom; Santos, Ana (January 19, 2015). "The Last Country in the World Where Divorce Is Illegal". Foreign Policy. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d Juco, Jorge (April 1966). "Fault, Consent and Breakdown-The Sociology of Divorce Legislation in the Philippines" (PDF). Philippine Sociological Review: 67–76. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  6. ^ "House okays on final reading bill legalizing divorce". Manila Standard.
  7. ^ a b c d Foja, Alnie (August 2017). Reintroducing Absolute Divorce in the Philippines & Thoughts on the Divorce Bill (Monograph Series No. 2 ed.). UP Diliman Gender Office. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  8. ^ a b c "Women's Priority Legislative Agenda for the 18th Congress: Adopting Divorce in the Family Code" (PDF). Philippine Commission on Women. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  9. ^ "Philippine President Arroyo Opposes Constitutional Amendments, Divorce". Wall Street Journal. July 6, 2001. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
  10. ^ "Arroyo opposes divorce bill". News24. March 19, 2005. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
  11. ^ a b Beltran, Jill (August 19, 2010). "Aquino won't support divorce (12:59 p.m.)". SunStar. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  12. ^ "Divorce? No way, stresses Philippine government". The Korea Herald. January 7, 2013. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  13. ^ Salaverria, Leila (March 20, 2018). "Duterte opposed to divorce – Roque". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
  14. ^ Patag, Kristine Joy (March 19, 2022). "Marcos open to divorce, 'but don't make it easy'". The Philippine Star. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
  15. ^ Casilao, Johanna (September 20, 2024). "PH courts can recognize divorce obtained abroad". GMA Network. Retrieved September 23, 2024.
  16. ^ a b Pulta, Benjamin (June 8, 2021). "SC rules in favor of Ibaloi heirs claim on father's estate". Philippine News Agency. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  17. ^ "Shariah Law and the Code of Muslim Personal Laws". Institute for Autonomy and Governance. Sun Star Davao. January 21, 2015. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
  18. ^ Eugenio, Ara (February 14, 2024). "Converting to Islam falsely touted as 'pathway to divorce' in Catholic-majority Philippines". AFP Fact Check. Agence France-Presse. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
  19. ^ "Family Code of the Philippines". Archived from the original on August 19, 2000. Retrieved September 6, 2006.
  20. ^ "Republic of the Philippines vs Orbeceido". Lawphil Project. Arellano Law. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
  21. ^ Quismoro, Elson (February 23, 2023). "Many marriages are 'mistakes', says pro-divorce solon". Manila Bulletin. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
  22. ^ Torres, Sherrie Ann (July 12, 2022). "Hontiveros files 'no-fault' divorce bill amid church objection". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  23. ^ Cruz, RG (February 20, 2018). "House panel drops chronic unhappiness, no-fault provision in divorce bill". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  24. ^ Felipe, Cecille Suerte (September 20, 2023). "Senate panel OKs absolute divorce bill". The Philippine Star. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  25. ^ Cervantes, Filane Mike (May 16, 2024). "Absolute divorce bill hurdles 2nd reading in House". Philippine News Agency. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  26. ^ Garcia, Nick (May 16, 2024). "House approves divorce bill on second reading". The Philippine Star. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  27. ^ Lalu, Gabriel Pabico (May 15, 2024). "House approves divorce bill on 2nd reading". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  28. ^ Cruz, Maricel (May 15, 2024). "Bill on 'absolute divorce' gets House vote on second reading". Manila Standard. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  29. ^ a b Patinio, Ferdinand (September 18, 2019). "No need for divorce, legal methods available for couples: CBCP". Philippine News Agency. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  30. ^ Rosario, Ben (August 20, 2021). "Oppositors confident 'unconstitutional' divorce bill will not get Lower House nod". Manila Bulletin. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  31. ^ Diaz, Jess (March 16, 2018). "'Divorce law will violate Constitution'". Philstar.com. The Philippine Star. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  32. ^ Fides, Agenzia (September 20, 2019). "Bishops: No to bills on divorce, anti-constitutional and anti-family - Agenzia Fides". Agenzia Fides. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  33. ^ "Our Right To Self-determination: Pilipina's Position On The Issues Of Divorce And Abortion" (PDF). Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. 2000. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  34. ^ "CBCP: Divorce bill 'anti-marriage and anti-family'". CNN Philippines. February 23, 2018. Archived from the original on February 25, 2018. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  35. ^ Medenilla, Samuel (September 22, 2019). "CBCP: Divorce unconstitutional in PHL; legal methods available". Business Mirror. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  36. ^ "CBCP Position against the Divorce Bill and against the Decriminalization of Adultery and Concubinage". CBCP Online. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  37. ^ Mendoza, John (May 23, 2024). "CBCP hits House for approving divorce bill". Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
  38. ^ Tolentino, Ma. Reina Leanne (June 24, 2024). "Couples for Christ issues anti-divorce manifesto". The Manila Times. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
  39. ^ "For they are no longer two, but one". Iglesia Ni Cristo. November 23, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  40. ^ Alignay, Moses (September 30, 2021). "What Does the Bible Say About Divorce?". INC Media. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  41. ^ Escareal-Go, Chiqui (2014). "Driven to Survive: Four Filipino Women CEOs' Stories on Separation or Annulment". Philippine Social Sciences Review: 52. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  42. ^ "Is the Philippines Ready for Divorce?". Philippine Daily Inquirer. July 9, 2011. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  43. ^ Bordey, Hana (March 31, 2023). "Padilla files bill recognizing civil effect of church decreed annulment". GMA News. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
  44. ^ Quisimorio, Ellson. "'Significant development' on bill simplifying annulment of marriage hailed". Manila Bulletin. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
  45. ^ "Social Weather Report | 50% of Filipino adults agree, 31% disagree, and 17% are undecided about legalizing divorce for irreconcilably separated couples". Social Weather Stations. Retrieved June 1, 2024.
  46. ^ Parungao, Adrian (June 1, 2024). "SWS: 50% OKs divorce for 'irreconcilably separated' couples". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved June 1, 2024.
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