By JOSEPH HOLANDES UBALDE
TV5, InterAksyon.com
A WOMEN’S rights lawmaker said Monday that the Philippines should follow in the footsteps of Malta and legalize the dissolution of marriage to give couples the chance to start a new life.
Gabriela Partylist Representative Luzviminda Ilagan told InterAksyon that the public referendum in Malta favoring the legalization of divorce in the Catholic nation is a go-signal for the Philippines to start rethinking the measure.
“Why not give couples divorce to give them another chance?” Ilagan said.
The partylist group revived the calls for divorce through House Bill No. 1799, also known as “An Act Introducing Divorce in the Philippines”. The said bill, which was filed in July 2010, seeks to dissolve the marriage contract of couples who have already been separated for at least five years and where reconciliation is highly improbable, Ilagan said.
The lawmaker added that marriage will only get stronger once divorce is in place because couples will be more careful in taking care of their relationship.
“Let’s admit it, many take the marriage vow for granted,” she said. “If divorce is there, the couple will respect the vow of marriage and take extra care on it, especially since it’s now easier to dissolve it.”
According to an Agence France Presse report, Saturday’s non-binding referendum in Malta asked the island’s 306,000 mainly Catholic voters whether parliament should introduce a new law that would allow couples to obtain a divorce after four years of separation.
The divorce measure was passed by a majority of 53.2 percent of those who cast ballots, although nearly a quarter of eligible voters did not bother to go to the polls, election officials said.
Malta is one of only two countries in the world — the Philippines is the other — that bans divorce. Chile was the last country to legalize divorce in 2004 after overwhelming public pressure. Under Philippine Family Code of 1987, obtaining divorce is illegal in the country.
Ilagan added that the events in Malta came “at the right time” for legislators pushing for the bill. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives will tackle the bill at the committee level.
“This answers the call of the times,” she added.
Filipinos know better
While Ilagan feels that the Philippines may be left behind in accepting divorce as a reality, the Catholic Church remains firm in keeping the Filipino family intact by denouncing the dissolution of marriage.
Retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz said he doesn’t mind if the Philippines is the only country left banning divorce. In fact, he is thankful that Filipinos know better.
“This (anti-divorce stance in the Philippines) only confirms that Filipinos know what’s right and wrong, ” he said.
Cruz also shrugged off the overwhelming vote of the Maltese in favoring divorce in their country, saying that “the numbers do not necessarily denote what is right.”
“Not all that the majority says is right,” he said.
According to Cruz, lawmakers pushing for divorce in the country must first answer three basic questions:
- How many times can one be divorced?
- How many homes will be dissolved by divorce?
- How many children will be left with broken families?
“Can they answer these questions without flinching?” Cruz added.
But Ilagan said Philippine society should accept that not all marriages have a happy ending. She added that everyone in the family—the couple and the children—are victims when the marriage isn’t working anymore.
“Do we refuse them the right to start anew?” she said.
Gabriela is renewing the divorce bill as an answer to the spate of abuses endured by women from their husbands.
According to the Jaromay Laurente Pamaos Law Offices blog, the divorce bill has been pushed in Congress since 1999 when Representative Manuel C. Ortega filed House Bill No. 6993, seeking for the legalization of divorce.
Similar bills were filed in 2001 in the Senate by Sen. Rodolfo Biazon (SB No. 782) and House of Representatives by Rep. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo (HB No. 878) and then again in 2008 by Gabriela (HB 3461).
