DIVORCE
DIVORCE —— PROS
DIVORCE BILL PROVIDES MORE AS A REMEDY
The remedy of annulment expires, and the defect may actually be cured by ratification through
free and voluntary cohabitation.
But what if the marriage worked in the first ten years, but later the parties drifted apart for
some reason or another? What if the other spouse was violent, unfaithful, indolent, or an
alcoholic or a drug addict? What if one spouse abandoned the family? These may not be used
for “annulment,” or for a marriage to be declared void under Article 36, unless it can be proved
that these are manifestations of psychological incapacity that predated the marriage.
• A divorce law will provide a remedy that Article 36 does not. Divorce does not
concern itself with validity or invalidity of a marriage. It terminates a marriage based
on a ground that occurred during the marriage, which makes the marital relationship
no longer tenable, regardless of the spouse’s psychological constitution. A divorce
law will provide a straightforward remedy to a marital failure. It will benefit Filipinos
wherever they are.
• CATHOLIC Church Need Not Worry
• There is not one but a plurality of beliefs in Philippine society. The law should only
give people a choice, to be exercised according to their own personal beliefs.
• Every day, Filipinos get married, bear children, separate and get into other
relationships, regardless of what the law says. The lack of a divorce law for non-
Muslim Filipinos complicates further the marital and family problems of many
Filipinos. Our government has clearly failed to respond to their needs. If the country
wants to move forward, it has to confront the realities of marital and family life of
Filipinos in the Philippines and abroad. It has to pass a divorce law now.
DIVORCE —— CONS
THERE IS ALREADY A REMEDY OF ANNULMENT IN OUR FAMILY CODE.
The remedy of annulment is based on specified grounds that occurred at the time of the
celebration of the marriage, such as lack of parental consent and vitiated consent (as when a
person married another at gunpoint).
Article 36 declares that a marriage is void from the beginning when one or both spouses are
psychologically incapacitated to perform the essential marital obligations. Under Article 36, a
court does not terminate a marriage but only declares it void. One must prove psychological
incapacity by presenting evidence on three essential elements of the condition: that it already
existed before the marriage; that it is grave or serious; and that it is incurable. To do this, one
usually needs the help of a psychiatrist or psychologist to testify as an expert witness
CBCP:
Once divorce is tolerated, no restraint is powerful enough to keep public morality within the
bounds marked out or anticipated. Great indeed, is the force of example, and even greater still the
might of passion. When are we going to learn from the experience of those countries where
divorce is permitted by civil law? For as soon as divorce has become possible, quarrels,
jealousies and judicial separations increase. Wherever divorce was introduced, the abuse that
followed far exceeded anything the lawmakers foresaw. In fact, many people contrive all kinds of
fraudulent devices, such as false accusations of cruelty, violence and adultery, merely to obtain
the dissolution of a matrimonial bond of which they have grown weary. As a result of all this such
moral havoc followed that an amendment of the law has been regarded as urgently needed.
DIVORCE
DIVORCE —— PROS
MUSLIMS ENJOY DIVORCE LAW ALREADY. So to say that divorce does not exist in present
Philippine law is not accurate. The prohibition against divorce under Philippine law applies
only to Filipinos whose marriages are not governed by the Muslim Code. Since Philippine law
on marriage applies to all Filipino citizens even though they are residing in a foreign country,
the prohibition against divorce for non-Muslim Filipinos is also a concern of Filipino expatriates.
DIVORCE —— CONS
NOT ALLOWED IN THE PHILIPPINES
Our supreme law, the 1987 Philippine Constitution, provides that it is the policy of our State “to
protect and strengthen the family as the basic autonomous social institution and marriage as the
foundation of the family” (Section 12 of Article II and Sections 1 and 2 of Article XV). “Our family
law is based on the policy that marriage is not a mere contract, but a social institution in which the
state is vitally interested. The State can find no stronger anchor than on good, solid and happy
families. The break up of families weakens our social and moral fabric and, hence, their
preservation is not the concern alone of the family members. Thus, our Constitution devotes an
entire Article on the Family, recognizing it “as the foundation of the nation”. It decrees marriage as
legally “inviolable,” thereby protecting it from dissolution at the whim of the parties. Both the family
and marriage are to be “protected" by the state.” (Asqueta vs. Republic, G.R. No. 180668, May
26, 2009)
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