Netizens react to divorce bill approval by House panel
The Philippines, not counting the Vatican City, is the only country in the world where divorce is illegal. But this could change soon after a committee at the House of Representatives unanimously approved on Tuesday a bill seeking to reinstitute absolute divorce a mode of dissolving marriages and strengthening the civil effects of Church annulment.
Albay Representative Edcel Lagman said the divorce bill will give spouses, especially wives, the option of getting out of an “irremediably broken marriage” and a chance to start over as the House Committee on Population and Family Relations gave its thumbs up to the proposal.
“The approval of the substitute bill on absolute divorce for eventual plenary debates assures that the country is now at the threshold of joining the universality of absolute divorce in the community of nations,” he wrote in a statement.
He also emphasized that the proposed legislation is only for exceptional circumstances where a couple or a spouse suffers “the torment of irreversibly dead marriages.”
The bill provides that proof of the cause for divorce must be established, and that the marriage has completely collapsed without any possibility of reconciliation.
However, the bill prohibits quickie, notarial, email and other speedy drive-thru divorces. In addition, no decree of absolute divorce will be based upon a stipulation of facts or a confession of judgment.
Many netizens feel that the legalization of divorce in the Philippines is long overdue and laud the latest development as a step towards the right direction. Netizens believe that the enactment of the divorce law would protect the rights of individuals who are currently trapped in dysfunctional and abusive marriages.
