The Philippine Proposed Divorce Law

Half of the entire Filipino population is already ready for divorce while a big part of the remaining half is just undecided. Our advocacy for divorce is related to our fight against violence against women. It is also in keeping with the women’s movement toward the promotion for bodily rights, autonomy and empowerment of the oppressed gender. It is not against men. It is against oppressors.

My sense is that a knee-jerk objection to divorce is just based on fear for the word divorce whose connotation is associated with the “ end of romance.” But it is not so. It is about what to do when the romance and the marriage contract have failed irrevocably. So, before we object, let us be informed first. The current proposed law is authored by our own feminist mentor, professor, then Davao City local legislator, now Party list Representative Luz Ilagan & Rep. Emerenciana de Jesus of the Gabriela Women’s Party.

The Gabriela Women’s Party proposed grounds for divorce are very straightforward and serve to improve on the current grounds for legal separation and more:

a) When the petitioner has been separated in fact for at least five years and reconciliation is
highly improbable;
b) When the spouses have already been granted a court decree of legal separation for at least
two (2) years & reconciliation is highly improbable;
c) When any of the grounds of legal separation has caused irreconcilable differences;
d) When one or both of the spouses are psychologically incapacitated to comply with the
essential marital obligations &
e) When the spouses suffer from irreconcilable differences that have caused the irreparable breakdown of the marriage.

Notice the words used are superlatives : irreconcilable, irreparable, marriage breakdown and highly improbable reconciliation. In turn, divorce as a remedy is an option.
In keeping with the women’s movement’s advocacy against violence, the bill proposes that the existing six (6) months cooling off period after filing of the petition for divorce shall not be applied where the action for legal separation or divorce involves acts of violence under the Anti- Violence Against Women & Their Children Act ( R.A. 9262)

Under current law on legal separation, a decree of relative divorce or legal separation does not sever marital ties; one is still married and thus a separated spouse is criminally liable if a spouse takes on an extra marital relationship. But, under the proposed divorce law, the effect or a decree of divorce cuts marital ties and thus remarriage is allowed; support is given to the innocent spouse who is not yet gainfully employed but only up to one year and custody is decided by the court for minor children in keeping with the “best interests of the child.”

Shouldn’t a remedy available to all nations of the world be available to us also? We have no right to celebrate national freedom and independence day if we continue to legally cage and imprison some of our women and men in broken and failed marital unions.

This remedy is not for couples who are in marital bliss. We should be confident that all around us we witness romance almost all of the time and couples living happily together. We should just bear in mind that marriage contracts are human made and that we are only improving the terms and conditions of the contract and thus by so doing we are improving the institution of marriage through law and policy. Our God in heaven will not surely be against improvement and our pursuit of human happiness and rights.