Bill barring passage of divorce law filed

MANILA, Philippines - A senior administration lawmaker filed a bill that would make the passage of a divorce law impossible in the country.

Marikina City Rep. Marcelino Teodoro filed House Bill No. 37 or “An Act providing for the Protection of Marriage as an Inviolable Social Institution and the Family as the Foundation of the Nation.”

Teodoro said the passage of the measure will ensure that absolute divorce remains unacceptable in the Philippine legal system, and maintains that legal separation can be availed of by spouses in a troubled marriage, as provided under the Family Code, so they live independently of each other but without the right to remarry other persons.

“There are initiatives from some groups as well as legislative proposals that support the introduction of divorce in the Philippines,” Teodoro said.

“It still undermines the value of marriage by encouraging couples to put an end to their relationship instead of allowing them to reconcile immediately or fix the same over time,” he said in his bill.

The lawmaker said the measure, if enacted into law, would strengthen the family as the foundation of the nation by making sure the bond of marriage remains intact.

He, however, stressed that existing laws on legal separation and annulment would be left intact.

Teodoro said his bill would also make a divorce obtained abroad by a Filipino citizen invalid in the Philippines.

Gabriela party-list Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan vowed to re-file her pro-divorce bill that was junked in the 15th Congress.

Ilagan said that she would re-file the measure alongside with the campaign against violence on women.

The Philippines is one of only two states in the world that has not legalized divorce, the other being the Vatican.