The Philippine Star reports that Filipino Rep. Neri Colmenares filed House Bill 3952, titled “An Act Recognizing Spousal Violence, Infidelity and Abandonment as Presumptive Psychological Incapacity Constituting a Ground for the Annulment of Marriage." He said the bill is “intended to make Article 36 of the Family Code, which allows the annulment of marriage on the ground of psychological incapacity, accessible to the poor.”
The bill essentially builds on the Catholic tradition of annulment law to provide the equivalent of fault-based divorce. But by including "abandonment" as a ground, it also essentially allows divorce in cases of mutual consent — if one person chooses to leave, the other has the choice to obtain an annulment.