ACCORDING TO a recent survey conducted by the independent survey firm Social Weather Stations (SWS), 50 percent of Filipinos are in favour of legalizing divorce while 31 percent are against it and the remaining 17 percent are undecided.
This is a far contrast to the results in 2005 when the SWS first conducted a survey on the Filipinos’ support for divorce, where 43 percent agreed to its legalization while 45 percent opposed it.
The result of the survey conducted from March 21-25, 2024 was released following the passage of House Bill No. 9349, or the proposed Absolute Divorce Act which was approved on the third and final reading on May 22. A total of 126 lawmakers voted for the approval while 109 were against it and 20 abstained from voting.
It must be noted also that there have been previous attempts to pass a divorce bill during the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th Congress. During the first half of the Duterte administration in the 17th Congress, a divorce bill also made it to the final reading. However, the Senate failed to act on it, leaving it among the stack of other non-priority bills to be abandoned and forgotten eventually.
Does this mean that more and more Filipinos are now taking a liberal perspective and are now more accepting of a divorce law in the country? Or are there some realizations that opened their minds and hearts to the actual plight of some married couples they know?
To assume that couples will now opt to divorce over petty quarrels and disagreements will be an insult to many women who want divorce as a legal option to escape an abusive and violent relationship. It will also invalidate the countless attempts of couples who try everything to work things out, only to realize albeit late that they are merely prolonging the agony of a toxic and negative relationship.
Some consider divorce as anti-marriage. But let us put a little context to this argument. For the record, I believe in the sanctity of marriage. I believe that when a man and a woman make solemn promises before God, family, and friends, they will “love, honor, and cherish” one another until “death us do part.” But what happens when one fails to honor this solemn promise? What if, instead of loving, honouring and cherishing the person you married, you make his or her life a living hell? Violence and abuse in all forms and degree, vicious cycle of infidelity, abandonment and other acts that no longer uphold the dignity of the other person as an equal partner in the covenant – these are anti-marriage. When you decide to be free from this kind of relationship, this is not dishonouring your covenant, this is trying to move on with your life so you can regain your self-respect, be healed and be the person that God intended you to be.
I agree that at the center of this argument are the children whom we fear to grow up as broken, incomplete and lacking because they are products of a broken family. This would only happen if that is exactly how the society continues to label them. It is high time that estranged couples remind themselves that their failure as husbands and wives does not stop them from fulfilling their responsibilities and therefore succeeding as co-parents to their children. Over the years we have seen the emergence of blended families instead of the so-called broken families. These are extended families where children grow up in an environment that fosters love, respect, support and genuine concern.
What about annulment? Yes, legally it “erases a marriage by declaring the marriage null and void and that the union was never legally valid.” But aside from not having a guaranteed result from the courts that will declare the invalidity of marriage, this procedure is also slow and costly. So, if our lawmakers believe that the country is not yet ready for the passage of a divorce law, they might as well make the existing annulment process under the Civil Code more affordable to every Filipino couple who are better off continuing with their lives as supportive, loving and nurturing co-parents to their children.
