9 Reasons to Support the Legalization of Divorce in the Philippines P1

Here's what Ana Santos' opinion on why she thinks divorce should be legalized in the Philippines:

It is official. The Philippines is now be the only country with no divorce law. Until recently, there were two countries in the world where there was no divorce—the Philippines and Malta. However, a recently concluded referendum in Malta showed that majority of the devoutly Catholic country were in favor of divorce so their government is now taking the necessary steps to craft their country’s first divorce law.

Now that Malta is joining the rest of the world in legalizing divorce, here are 10 reasons why the Philippines should follow suit.

1. CURRENT LAWS THAT ALLOW FOR LEGAL SEPARATIONS AND ANNULMENTS ARE FLAWED.

For couples who want to dissolve their union or live apart, there are two options: legal separation and annulment. A legal separation allows a couple to divide their properties and live apart, but it does not dissolve their marriage, i.e., they cannot re-marry. In annulments and declaration of nullity of marriage, you have to prove that the marriage was invalid from the start according to a certain set of reasons such as impotence, homosexuality, mistaken identity, or psychological incapacity, among others.

Both are options are flawed. In legal separations, everything but the marriage is dissolved. Quite literally, the couple remains married only on paper. In an annulment, you must prove that your reason for wanting to nullify the marriage existed even before the marriage--this requires one to declare and prove that his or her partner is incapable of functioning as wife or husband.

The idea of couples wanting to end their marriages is not a new to Filipinos. As women’s rights advocate Beth Angsioco wrote in her column, "We already have laws for those who only want property settlement, and those with void and voidable marriages. Why not a law for valid but failed marriages?"

2. DIVORCE USED TO EXIST IN THE PHILIPPINES

According to Atty. Fred Pamaos, the Philippines once had a law on divorce. “Before the Spanish colonial rule in the early 16th century, absolute divorce had been widely practiced among our ancestral tribes—the Tagbanwas of Palawan, the Gadang of Nueva Vizcaya, the Sagada and Igorot of the Cordilleras, the Manobo, Bila-an and Moslems of Visayas and Mindanao islands, to name a few.”

During the American period and Japanese occupation, some form of divorce was already in place. It was actually the 1950 Civil Code of the Philippines that abolished these laws.

3. THERE ARE SECTORS IN PHILIPPINE SOCIETY THAT PRACTICE DIVORCE.

The Code of Muslim Personal Laws of the Philippines allows for divorce—however, with stipulations: namely, a man can divorce his wife, but a woman cannot divorce her husband.

To be continued..