RH, not divorce, is Palace priority

BRUNEI Darussalam (via PLDT/Smart) – The bill legalizing divorce will not be a priority measure of the administration, which intends to focus on the Reproductive Health (RH) bill first.

President Aquino, who was here on a state visit, told reporters late Wednesday that the government would first set the momentum for priority measures before venturing into other contentious issues like the legalization of divorce.

“I promised job generation, education, health, judicial reform, and we are doing all of that already... Divorce, I think, is not a priority at this time,” he said.

On a lighter note, he joked: “I’m not even married yet, and you want divorce?” Aquino met reporters for coffee at the residence of Ambassador Nestor Ochoa, during which time he said that he favors the conduct of an extensive debate on the issue in the future. “I don’t want to make the divorce process so easy that it will be like divorce in Las Vegas wherein you are married in the morning and then divorced in the afternoon. Family is very important,” he said. At the same time, he acknowledged that there are marriages that cannot be repaired. “There has to be a way out wherein they are able to regain the right to marry but they (would) have to go through a very exhaustive process that will give them stuff to rethink whether or not they want to dissolve the family,” Aquino said.