By Junex Doronio
MANILA — Saying that annulment of marriage in the Philippines is very expensive and lengthy in process, several lawmakers in the House of Representatives have asked their counterparts at the Senate to pass the divorce bill in this 19th Congress to give everyone in the country another crack at happiness and marital bliss.
Maharlika NuMedia learned that filing an annulment of marriage takes years to be decided upon by a court and costs about P350,000 with no assurance that the judge will rule favorably.
To recall, in the 17th Congress, the House of Representatives under the leadership of ex-House Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez approved on third reading a divorce bill.
But the Senate just sat on it.
On Wednesday (15 May 2024), the House of Representatives passed on second reading House Bill 9349, sponsored by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, which provides divorce as a fourth way for couples to separate.
There are currently only three ways in which spouses who got married in the Philippines can terminate their relationship: (1) file a petition to dissolve the marriage, (2) seek an annulment, or (3) legal separation.
HB 9349, or the draft Absolute Divorce Act, calls for a fourth mode of terminating what he described as “irreparably broken or dysfunctional” marriages in the country.
The three other modes allowed under the Family Code are (1) canonical dissolution, (2) annulment, and (3) legal separation.
It also aims to “save the children from the pain, stress, and agony consequent to their parents’ marital clashes or irreconcilable differences and grant the divorced spouses the right to marry again for another chance to achieve marital bliss.”
At present, there are four pending proposals in the Senate.
Senate Bills 147, 213, 237, 554, 555, 1198, and 2047 consolidated under SB 2443, an act expanding grounds for dissolution of marriage, instituting divorce authored by Senators Risa Hontiveros, Raffy Tulfo, Robinhood Padilla, Pia Cayetano, and Imee Marcos.
(el Amigo/MNM)
