By JEN BAYLON
The House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill (HB) 9349 or the Absolute Divorce Act, as lawmakers from Negros Occidental and Bacolod City were divided on the measure.
HB 9349, which garnered 131 affirmative votes, 109 negative votes and 20 abstentions last week, gives Filipino spouses a fourth mode of separation on top of the three methods allowed under the country’s Family Code.
The measure will provide an alternative way of dissolving irreparably broken or dysfunctional marriages.
Five lawmakers from Negros Occidental voted in favor of the bill, including 1st District Representative Gerardo Valmayor, 3rd District Representative Jose Francisco Benitez, 4th District Representative Juliet Marie Ferrer, Bacolod Lone District Representative Greg Gasataya, and Abang Lingkod Party-list Representative Stephen Joseph Paduano.
On the other hand, three lawmakers in the province who voted against the bill, include 2nd District Representative Alfredo Marañon III, 5th District Representative Emilio Yulo III and 6th District Representative Mercedes Alvarez.
In an interview, Alvarez said that, with the passage of the bill, it would be easy for couples to file a divorce based on such grounds, including irreconcilable differences.
“For me, it’s too broad, it is too encompassing, nga it could be any reason for a person to file for divorce,” Alvarez said.
“Nakasulat man ina sa Constitution naton. There are three specific probations in the Constitution which states that very important ang family and the marriage life of the couples,” she added.
Under HB 9349, the grounds for legal separation under the Family Code of the Philippines could also be considered grounds for absolute divorce. These include:
* Physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against the petitioner, a common child or a child of the petitioner
* Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to change religious or political affiliation
* Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a common child or a child of the petitioner, to engage in prostitution
* Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more than six years
* Drug addiction, habitual alcoholism or chronic gambling
* Homosexuality of the respondent
* Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage
* Marital infidelity or perversion or having a child with another person other than one’s spouse during the marriage
* Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner, a common child or a child of the petitioner
* Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for more than one year
The following grounds for annulment of marriage under the Family Code of the Philippines are also grounds for absolute divorce: Lack of parental consent; insanity; fraud, force, intimidation, or undue influence; impotence; and sexually transmissible diseases.
HB 9349 also provides that a valid foreign divorce secured by either the foreigner or Filipino spouse has the effect of a divorce in the country without going through the judicial process.
A petition for absolute divorce shall be filed with the proper family court by the petitioner or joint petitioners within 10 years from the occurrence or discovery of the cause for divorce.
Meanwhile, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said there is no need for a divorce law in the country.
“There is a way out of a failed marriage,” Lacson said on Sunday, May 26, referring to annulment and legal separation./JB, WDJ