MANILA, Philippines — Sens. Risa Hontiveros and Robin Padilla are finding themselves on the same side of the fence as they have both identified the legalization of divorce in the Philippines among their priority measures for the 19th Congress.
Hontiveros and Padilla filed different versions of the measure that is deemed rather controversial in the Philippines, where majority identify as Catholic and which is the only state aside from the Vatican that has not yet legalized divorce for the entire population. Divorce is only legal in the Philippines for Muslim couples who were married under Muslim rites.
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Hontiveros has been identified by former Vice President Leni Robredo as the new leader of the opposition as she is now the highest-ranking elected official from their ranks, while Padilla has been a vocal supporter of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
But Hontiveros said she is willing to work with any senator on common issues they are pushing for.
"We are ready to cooperate with any senator with the same advocacies for women and the Filipino family," Hontiveros said Monday in Filipino in a reply to media queries. "As in the past six years, I am always able to cross party lines and unite with other senators to push important laws."
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Different, but not irreconcilable
Hontiveros said she is hopeful that there is a better chance for the divorce bill to hurdle Congress this time around as the Senate panel on women, children, family relations and gender equality already tackled the proposal in the 18th Congress. The committee report from those hearings can be a basis for new discussions on the measure, she said.
While both Hontiveros’ and Padilla’s bills seek to legalize divorce in the country, the two proposals are markedly different from each other.
For one, Hontiveros’ divorce bill provides an extensive section on "guiding principles," which recognize that the family should be provided protection and assistance and provide what a divorce decree should have, among others.
Padilla’s version, meanwhile, has an "interpretation" clause which states that the measure should be "applied and interpreted in favor of the protection and strengthening of the family."
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Proposed grounds for divorce
Hontiveros’ bill provides that couples can get a divorce after five continuous years of separation even without a judicial decree of separation, but couples who are legally separated for at least two years can already get divorced.
Padilla’s bill, meanwhile, has a blanket provision stating that couples who have been separated in fact for at least two consecutive years can get divorced.
Both measures reference grounds provided under the Family Code for legal separation as grounds for divorce, but Hontiveros’ version provides that physical violence or grossly abusive conduct does not have to be repeated and that homosexuality in itself is not a ground unless either or both spouses commit marital infidelity.
Both proposals also provide that couples can divorce when they have divorced overseas or when they have irreconcilable differences.
Unique to Padilla’s version is a provision which states that having a child with another person other than one’s spouse during a marriage is a ground for divorce, unless both spouses agree to this, or a child is born to them in vitro, or when the wife becomes pregnant after getting raped.
Also unique to the Padilla bill is the mandatory six-month "cooling off" period which will be observed between the filing of the divorce petition and the start of court proceedings, except in the following cases:
- Summary judicial proceedings
- Sexual infidelity
- Sttempt by the respondent on the life of a common child or a child of the petitioner or the petitioner themself
- Or acts involving violence against women and their children
Will it finally hurdle Congress?
The farthest that a divorce bill has gotten in Congress was in 2018, when it was passed by the House of Representatives in a 134-57 vote under the speakership of pro-divorce lawmaker Pantaleon Alvarez (Davao del Norte).
The measure, however, got stuck in the Senate where it did not progress beyond the committee level.
It remains to be seen whether incoming congressional leaders — often elected with the imprimatur of the president — would shepherd divorce, which is seen by advocates as a pro-women legislation.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said when he was still campaigning for the top elective post that he is open to "take the next step" and legalize divorce, but urged that the process should not be made easy. A common argument against divorce is that it would devalue marriage by making it "too easy" to end one.