HB 1799 – Divorce Bill
Full Text of House Bill 1799 (An act introducing divorce in the Philippines)
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As a House panel starts this week the deliberations on the measure introducing divorce in the country, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Monday said he personally supports the proposed legislation.
"Let me just say that I myself is in favor of the bill. It is very difficult to let the people who cannot continue to live together do so. There are lots of social problems involved here," Belmonte told reporters.
He added that he thinks divorced couples can still “nurture" their children even when they are living separately.
Belmonte likewise said that divorce should be considered by Congress since annulment "is working in the country."
"Parang divorce na rin e, di ba? Isa pa, annulment really leaves a puzzle on the status of children. Some of them have grown up and families of their own for some reason nag-anulled ang kanilang parents," he said.
He said, however, that he expects House Bill 1799 introducing divorce in the country to be another "contentious" bill.
Under HB 1799, couples who have been legally separated for two years can already file a petition for divorce.
The measure lists psychological incapacity, irreconcilable differences and failure to comply with marital obligations as grounds for filing a divorce petition.
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Bishop: It’s okay for PHL to be the only country without divorce
A senior official of the Catholic Church said it would be okay for the Philippines to have the distinction of being the only country in the world that does not have a divorce law.
In an article posted on the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) website, Archbishop emeritus Oscar Cruz said “the anti-divorce stance in the Philippines only confirms that Filipinos know what’s right and wrong."
Cruz heads the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ (CBCP) national appellate marriage tribunal.
Last weekend, the overwhelmingly Catholic state of Malta in the Mediterranean voted in favor of allowing divorce in a non-binding referendum.
If the Maltese parliament approves a divorce law, the Philippines will become the only country, aside from the Vatican, where marriage dissolution is illegal.
The 306,000 mainly Catholic voters were asked whether the Maltese government should introduce divorce to couples who have been separated for four years.
However, Cruz said the results of the referendum in Malta “do not necessarily denote what is right."
“Not all that the majority says is right," Cruz added. - VVP, GMA News
