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Filipino lawmakers have made big moves towards legalizing divorce within the Philippines. A bill that would institute criteria in which civil divorce would be allowed has passed through the House of Representatives and will soon head to the Senate. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has previously indicated that he would likely sign the legislation.
The House vote, in May, was a narrow one, but the Absolute Divorce Bill passed with 126 votes in favor, 109 opposed, and 20 abstentions. Still, it is unclear if it will hold up under the Senate’s scrutiny, as only five of the nation’s 24 Senators have voiced their support. In 2018, a similar bill passed the House only to be squashed in by the Senate.
The Philippines and Vatican City State are the only countries where divorce is not legal. (Muslim law permits divorce). In the Philippines, it is possible to get a decree of legal separation, but in order to marry again, the first relationship needs to be recognized as null.
Proponents of the bill believe that the annulment process takes too long and the criteria are too narrow. The ground for divorce proposed by bill would include physical abuse, abandonment, and infidelity.
Opponents of the bill, however, tend to lean on the Catholic definition of marriage (the Philippines is about 80% Catholic) in which the vows made before God may not be dissolved by a civil court.
The people oppose divorce
A recent survey of the public opinion on Filipino divorce found that 49% of the populous remains against legalizing divorce, with only 30% in favor. When asked to consider common causes for divorce, the only one that found majority support was in the instance of spousal abuse, but even then only 51% supported divorce in this scenario.
The Catholic bishops of the Philippines have also voiced their concerns in a statement last month called "A Nation Founded on Family, A Family Founded on Marriage," pointing towards the increased likelihood that those who become divorced will do so again in their next marriage.
The bishops cited data from the National Center for Health Statistics, which found that the “failure rate for first marriage is roughly 48%, 60% for second, and 70% for third marriages,” in nations where divorce is legal.
The bishops wrote:
"Think of the sufferings that you would have had to endure if civil divorce had already been available as a remedy for what your own parents may have thought back then were 'irreconcilable differences' between them? While it is true that some marriages might indeed be beyond repair already, isn’t it just as true that going through times of marital crisis is almost a normal thing for all married couples and need not end too quickly in a parting of ways?"
Furthermore, the bishops argued that marriage is a “foundational aspect of Filipino society” that would be undermined by the passage of the Absolute Divorce Bill. They cautioned that such measures should not be explored without deliberation and compassion, especially in regards to the impact of divorce on children and the family, as well as the broader community.
