House approves divorce bill on final reading


By ERWIN COLCOL, GMA News
The House of Representatives on Monday approved on third and final reading the bill seeking to introduce absolute divorce and dissolution of marriage in the Philippines.
Voting 134 in the affirmative, 57 in the negative, and two abstentions, the chamber approved House Bill 7303, or the proposed Act Instituting Absolute Divorce and Dissolution of Marriage in the Philippines.
The bill provides that after the divorce becomes effective, the marriage bonds will be severed and the former spouses will have the right to marry another person either by civil or religious ceremony.
The measure also ensures that the proceedings for the grant of absolute divorce will be affordable and inexpensive, particularly for indigent litigants and petitioners.
The bill provides the grounds on the granting of an absolute divorce, which include:
  • The grounds for legal separation and annulment of marriage under the Family Code of the Philippines;
  • Separation in fact for at least five years;
  • Legal separation by judicial decree for at least two years;
  • Psychological incapacity;
  • Gender reassignment surgery;
  • Irreconcilable differences; and
  • Joint petition of spouses
A mandatory six-month cooling-off period will also be provided under the bill. During this period, the court will not start the trial for absolute divorce after the filing of the petition for six months to try to to reunite an reconcile the parties.
Aside from these, the bill also provides for an option for a one-time grant of alimony, or or the allowance for support made under the court to a divorced person by the former spouse.
There is also for an option for delivering the presumptive legitimate, or the portion of a parent's estate which he or she cannot give to the children as inheritance, if the spouses are still living.
If the divorce bill is signed into law, the Philippines will join every country in the world, except Vatican, to allow divorce. —KBK, GMA News

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