Unconstitutional act

It is so alarming and quite disgusting that Congress is once more considering the enactment of the Absolute Divorce Bill, instead of protecting the more personal aspects of the citizens’ life – marriage and family. Under our Constitution, Article 15, Section 2, marriage as an inviolable social institution is the foundation of the family. While Article 11 Section 12 provides that the state recognizes the sanctity of family life and shall protect and strengthen family as a basic institution.

The framers of the Constitution saw it fit to enshrine these policies because of the many dire consequences wrought by absolute divorce, as shown in countries where it has been legalized. They have seen that in those countries where marriage is not considered inviolable, there are many broken homes and disintegrating families which result in the proliferation of juvenile delinquencies and drug addictions among teenagers, some even ending up not only in vandalism but in school shooting rampages; the numerous incidents of premarital sex and teenage pregnancies that end up in abortions and many other events indicating a moral collapse of society.

Our laws have already given an alternative remedy to an aggrieved spouse in getting out of an unbearable marriage relationship, which is the declaration of nullity of marriages that is by law considered to be non-existent from the beginning; or the invalidation of a marriage which have some defects at the time of celebration.

In the first case, no marriage took place at all. In the second case a marriage has taken place and already exists but is defective. In either case therefore, the marriage bond can be dissolved without infringing on the accepted public policy of the inviolability of marriage.

But in the case of absolute divorce being proposed by our legislators, marriages have no vice or defect at the time of celebration. They are dissolved for causes arising after their celebration. Here there is a perfectly valid marriage which the law already considers as an inviolable social institution. So when it is dissolved under the proposed divorce law, this accepted public policy enshrined in our Constitution and family law will be infringed.

In fact, there is another form of divorce called “relative” divorce, also known as divorce a mensa et toro or legal separation of husband and wife from bed and board. Relative divorce is already recognized in this jurisdiction because the marriage bond remains intact except that the spouses are entitled to live separately and to divide their properties. Unlike absolute divorce where the spouses can remarry, relative divorce or legal separation does not allow the spouses to remarry. So the inviolability of marriage as an institution is still upheld. This kind of divorce already affords the aggrieved spouse enough remedies to get out of an unbearable relationship.

We should be proud to be known and distinguished as the only country which continues to preserve and even strengthen marriage and family ties under any circumstances, like being separated for some time because of need to work abroad. We are the only country where family members continue to respect and take care of their elders, especially the sick and the infirm instead of dumping them in nursing homes or homes for the aged; the only country where parents and siblings toil and sacrifice for the sake of the other members of the family; the only country where the greater majority of husbands and wives continue to live together in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, observe mutual love, respect and fidelity and render mutual help and support.

Filipinos are known to be faithful and true to their commitments; more so with respect to their marriage vows. But if absolute divorce is legalized here, this admirable trait will be disregarded and the commitment to the marriage vows will be so fragile because the parties no longer consider marriage as something more sacred than an ordinary contract.

It is erroneous to contend that by recognizing absolute divorce, we will be doing a great favor to the innocent spouse, especially the battered wife as it will enable her to get out of an unbearable marital relationship. On the contrary, it will be doing a greater favor to the guilty spouse, particularly the philandering and violent husband, because divorce enables him to get out of the marital relationship by committing acts that constitute grounds for absolute divorce and then remarry again and still continue to commit those acts every time he wants to get out of the marital relationship he has repeatedly entered into.

Passing a law on absolute divorce therefore would only shake and erode marriage, which is the very foundation of a solid and strong family which in turn is the foundation of the nation that the State is bound to protect, strengthen and develop.