Position Paper: Should Divorce Law be Passed in the Philippines?

Article 1 of the Family code provides that:

“Marriage is a special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman entered into in accordance

with law for the establishment of conjugal and family life. It is the foundation of the family and an inviolable

social institution whose nature, consequences, and incidents are governed by law and not subject to

stipulation, except that marriage settlements may fix the property relations during the marriage within the

limits provided by this Code”.

Marriage is a very important instrument of our society for it is the foundation of the basic unit of our society,

the family. One of the main obligation of State is to regulate the marriage of its citizen through passing of

laws that will maintain its solemnity and protect the right of contracting parties of marriage. Despite the

power of State to regulate marriage, still, we cannot deny the fact that some marriages do fail no matter

how much love and admiration the spouses had for each other when they first entered married life. Hence,

I believe that our government should have a more relaxed rule with regards to separation through divorce.

Divorce should be allowed in the Philippines based on the reasons that, first domestic violence (violence)

exists in marriage which annulment does not recognize as a ground thus, it could not be considered as

remedy available to the victim of violence. Legal separation, is also prejudicial and divorce can make up to

the inadequacy of legal separation and annulment. Third, the argument of the religious sector about divorce

is very much flawed. Lastly, marriages do fail for some reasons other than abusive relationship.

According to the National Demographic and Health Survey conducted by the National Statistics Office,

one out of five women aged 15-49 has experienced physical violence and 14.4 percent of married women

have experienced physical abuse from their husbands. Statistics have also shown that wife battery ranked
highest among cases of violence against women at 72 percent in 2009, affecting more than 6,000 women

(Umil, 2011). Despite the high percentage of domestic violence existing in marriages the Philippine the

only available remedy to get out of the abusive marriage is legal separation because annulment does not

recognize such circumstances as a valid ground for the voidability of the marriage. However, legal

separation is prejudicial in a sense that it does not recognize the right of the victim of domestic violence to

be in a marriage that is bound with love not violence because according to United States jurisprudence of

Loving vs. Virginia “Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence

and survival…” Hindering the marriage of a victim of violence is just as grave as not allowing the marriage

of person who does not enter marriage yet. Legal separation does not banish the liability of estranged couple

to concubinage and bigamy. Hence, we are just helping them with the agony of the physical sufferings but

we are trapping them with the same person. Legal Separation, because of their previous abusive marriage,

strips people of their right to have a romantic and intimate relationship with people who will not abuse

them. Having divorce will ease the inadequacy of legal separation and annulment when it comes to violence

for it recognize such circumstances as a valid ground and it will not trap the estranged couple with their

abusive relation since it absolutely dissolves the marriage. Hence, spouses will not be liable with

concubinage and bigamy after the separation in divorce.

Religion is one of the biggest factor on why does divorce struggles to be passed here in the Philippines

despite multiple attempt from Congress. Roughly 83 percent of Filipinos are Roman Catholics. This means

that the church’s opinion matters to a lot to the people, and the church firmly says no (de Leon, 2014).

According to Archbishop Romulo Velles, president of the CBCP, divorce might end up destroying even

marriages that could have been saved by dialogues or intervention of family. This is somehow problematic

for the fundamental law of the Philippines, thru its preamble, states that our government should promote

common good, with the argument of the Archbishop Velles it is promoting that divorce is prejudicial

because it affects the marriages that can be saved. However, the argument is discrediting those marriages

that cannot be save by dialogues and intervention of the family and leaving them with no choice but to
choose between annulment and legal separation, the inadequacies of which were already discussed above.

Promulgating divorce law will make our legal system more flexible for it will acknowledge the existence

of irreconcilable marriage and at the same time leaving the discretion to the spouses on whether to undergo

divorce or not.

Lastly, divorce should be pass on the reason that marriages do fail for reasons other than abuse. According

to Justrice Flerida Ruth Romero “…marriage is a sacred and perpetual bond which should be entered into

because of love, not for any other reason.” (Figueroa vs. Barranco, SBC Case No. 519). Two people enter

into marriage because of love and the happiness that it is causing them, but sometimes love does not last.

On the dissenting opinion of Justice Leonen in the case of Matudan vs. People “Parties should not be forced

to stay in unhappy or otherwise broken marriages in the guise of protecting the family. This avoids the

reality that people fall out of love. There is always the possibility that human love is not forever.” This is

one of reasons that is being invalidated by the available remedies of separation here in our country. People

do fall out of love not only because they were cheated on, physically hurt, mentally abused etc. The reason

of this varies however, no one can give a definite solution to this for according to Justice Florenz Regalado

on his decision for the case of Chua-qua vs. Clave “…heart have reasons of its own which reason does not

know”. When love starts to fade the person will start to feel indifferent towards his or her partner which is

worse than being angry to your partner for it will make a sad marriage with no emotions and it will just be

as bad as an abusive marriage. Hence, the only legal remedy for this problem would be divorce. It will make

the people more welcome to pursue their happiness and make themselves grow and be a better person.

Nobody is perfect in this world, all of us make poor decisions and sometimes one of them is being married

to wrong person. The State should acknowledge this weakness and come up with the most flexible terms to

provide convenience and choice to its citizens. Promulgating divorce will not discredit how important the

family is, it will just give avenue to those people who really struggle with their marriage which problems

is not being acknowledge on the current remedies for separation. It is very much essential for the State to

recognize that marriages do fail sometimes because of the reasons controlled and sometimes uncontrolled
by the spouses. It will never be worth it for the Philippines to compromise the welfare of the citizen with

the religious belief due to the core responsibility of the State to protect its people not the religion.

Besides, the concept of family is broaden nowadays. Friends, workmates or schoolmates could be treated

as family. It is also a fact that grandparents could provide family to their grandchildren with broken family.