The legislature's lower house has passed a divorce law, but the Senate seems far from it, on both sides of the aisle, and the President opposes it. The country currently does not have divorce, but it does have Legal Separation, and civil and religious annulments, and Muslims there are allowed to divorce by Islamic law.
The “Instituting Absolute Divorce and Dissolution of Marriage in the Philippines” Act passed by a vote of 134-57. ...
The proposed law lists several grounds for divorce, including:
- One of the spouses undergoes a gender reassignment surgery
- The reasons listed to currently allow for a legal separation and annulment
- Separation of spouses for at least five years
- Legal separation by judicial decree for at least two years
- Psychological incapacity
- Irreconcilable marital differences
That last one could be the wild-card that makes all the other grave-sounding grounds unnecessary, depending on how the courts interpret. In almost all U.S. states and most countries, the path of least resistance has been to interpret it as allowing divorce on demand, with no proof needed.
A statement from the country's bishops said:
“Even couples in seemingly successful marriages would often look back and recall the countless challenges that had almost brought their relationship to a breaking point if they had not learned to transcend personal hurts through understanding and forgiveness, or sometimes through the intervention of a dialogue facilitator such as a marriage counselor,” the bishops’ statement said.
“In a context in which divorce is presented as an easy option, marriages and families are bound to break up more easily. More children will grow up disoriented and deprived of the care of both parents.”
Quotations are from "Philippines edges closer to passing divorce law, despite opposition from Catholic Church", CRUX, 3/20/18.
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