Divorce in the Country

As I’ve mentioned in almost all of my blogs, Philippines is now the only country without divorce, the only country that haven’t legalized divorce. There is Vatican but it is not really a country.

Gabrila refilled a controversial bill to legalize divorce in the country known as House Bill No. 1799, an act introducing divorce in the Philippines and it lists down five grounds for filing a petition for divorce:

1. Petitioner has been separated de facto (in fact) from his or her spouse for at least five years at the time of the filing of the petition and reconciliation is highly improbable;

2. Petitioner has been legally separated from his or her spouse for at least two years at the time of the filing of the petition and reconciliation is highly improbable;

3. When the spouses suffer from irreconcilable differences that have caused the irreparable breakdown of the marriage;

4. When one or both spouses are psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential marital obligations;

5. Any of the grounds for legal separation that has caused the irreparable breakdown of the marriage.

I found a blogger named Noemi and here is her stand:

I am for divorce. Let me elaborate.
I wrote about annulment in the Philippines four years ago. The comments from readers exposed me to the sad reality of abusive spouses. I understood the reasons of failed marriages of close friends and relatives but it was only in my blog and through emails, that I understood the abusive relationships in some marriages. My heart reaches out to women crying out for help, one of which told me:

Being trapped for 18 years (1992-present) as single parent but status married; I hate our laws, as a woman, as a wife, having been abused. I was a battered wife for four years until I decided to run away for my life. My home is not safe anymore; my basic right to life was violated for four years (1988-1992) by someone supposed to protect me. Annulment law is a milking cow for lawyers, a law only for the elite, a privilege to those who can afford a law for sale, another human rights violation. For those battered women who can’t afford, the law shouts for you to wait for death, no escape, we are doomed.Being battered and unprotected is one thing I hate being born Filipina. I was already scammed and I cannot even appeal cause 15 days has lapsed. Money cannot be made in 15 days for a single parent with two children whose education is priority. Decision notice did not even warn me I have to beat 15 days.

It is for this reason that the bill was filed, “for women in abusive marital relationships, the need for a divorce law is real. It is high time that we give Filipino couples, especially the women, this option,” said Gabriela Representatives Luzviminda Ilagan and Emerenciana De Jesus in the bill’s explanatory note.

For Noemi, an abusive relationship is one reason why she supports the divorce bill