MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE

Divorce is recognized around the world but not in Malta and in the Philippines and it should always remain unrecognized in this country.

Is it not enough that the Family Code of the Philippines gives two alternatives to people who want to get out of failed marriages – annulment and legal separation? Why do we need to push a bill on divorce?

Annulment is the remedy to remarry which entails proving in court that a marriage is void from its beginning due to psychological incapacity.1 Legal separation on the other hand does not dissolve the marriage bond between legally separated spouses thus forestalling them from pursuing subsequent marriages.

Attempts to legalize divorce in the Philippines have always been the subject of moral and legal debates. Divorce is not only a legal issue but also a moral issue thus making it difficult to resolve. The Philippines is dominantly Catholic and the Catholic Church is not in favor of divorce.

Morally speaking, divorce is seen as a universal error and a serious violation of God’s law based on the Catholic teachings that marriage is a sacred contract to the dignity of a sacrament. Such violation produces serious problem leading to social problems like runaway teens, drug addictions, prostitution, low self-esteem, depression and even suicide. Archbishop Oscar Cruz, D.D. Canon lawyer and a president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said that for “those desirous only of doing away with an impossible relationship with no intention to remarry, the recourse is legal separation not divorce. Regarding anomalous relationships such as in the case of psychiatric persons or behavioral deviants, once proven by experts that any of these have been existent at the time of the wedding, then civil marriage annulment is the recourse, not divorce.”2

Legally speaking, to sanction the availability or validity of divorce in the Philippines is to violate constitutionally set principles on marriage and family.

Article XV of the 1987 Philippine Constitution discusses family as a basic social institution protected and strengthened by marriage, to wit:

Sec. 1. The State recognizes the Filipino family as the foundation of the nation. Accordingly, it shall strengthen its solidarity and actively promote its total development.
Sec. 2. Marriage, as an inviolable social institution, is the foundation of the family and shall be protected by the State.

The Family Code consequently provides that marriage “is a special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman entered into in accordance with law for the establishment of conjugal and family life. It is the foundation of the family and an inviolable social institution whose nature, consequences, and incidents are governed by law and not subject to stipulation.”3

Therefore, whatever legal route the proponents of a divorce law in the Philippines may take, it will end up running against the fundamental laws of the land. Besides, if someone thinks of marriage and settling for a family, he would not think of divorce and if there is such thing as divorce, then there is no really such thing as marriage.

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1 The Family Code of the Philippines, Article 36: A marriage contracted by any party who, at the time of the celebration, was psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential marital obligations of marriage, shall likewise be void even if such incapacity becomes manifest only after its solemnization. (As amended by Executive Order 227)2 PRO-Life Philippines, Divorce - reducing marriage to a temporary sexual contract, Retrieved: March 19, 2008 at http://www.prolife.org.ph/page/divorce.3 Supra, Article 1.

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Submitted to Atty. Farah Decano in my Legal Writing subject. I do not know what grade she gave me for this.