No Need for Divorce in the Philippines

In just the past week, Philippine news outlets, plus several international ones, published almost 50 articles on divorce, and how oppressive it is to keep Filipinos from having access to this ‘unmet need’. There are too many intertwined issues which cannot all be covered here, but here are some important points to consider.

The Philippines is the last country besides the Vatican that has not legalized divorce. According to Senator Pia Cayetano, this is no cause for national pride. But there are countless reasons why keeping divorce illegal in the Philippines isn’t about patriotism. It’s about not giving up the fight for marriage and for children.

Unfortunately for some Filipinos these days, that may be cute but is no longer representative of Filipino sentiment. For sometime now there has grown a general disillusionment about and disdain for traditional marriage, parenthood, and family. Who can blame these commenters? These are the voices of pain, experience, and long-suffering. We cannot continue to ignore them, not as a Church who tends to Her wounded and does Her best to keep more wounds from getting inflicted. Adultery, second and third families, separations legal and illegal, have all become part of the national narrative. Though families intact and healthy still exist, even Filipino pro-lifers lament about modernist values that have crept in and taken hold. Too many children have already grown up broken, some of them beyond repair.

The proposed solution, divorce, however, cannot be considered “greener pasture”. The devastation that divorce has wreaked in its wake, in the United States and other countries, is well documented and readily observable. Why would anyone want the Philippines to jump from the frying pan into the fire?

Divorce is simply a stopgap measure that doesn’t address the roots of the problem. It does nothing but perpetuate cycles of fatherlessness, trauma, instability, and poverty. While there are divorce survivors who seem to have adjusted quite well, the best option is still to promote healthy marriages and families. The effects of divorce ripple across society and touch everyone. The consequences of legalizing divorce in the Philippines won’t be available for scrutiny until decades later, when we will look at each other’s faces and ask, what have we done?

Divorce proponents tout the recent SWS survey that says most Filipinos now want divorce legalized, but as a research analyst friend points out, the sentence used in the survey is too complex to quantify properly.

Gaano po kayo sang-ayon o hindi sang-ayon sa pangungusap na ito: “Ang mga mag-asawang hiwalay na at hindi na maaaring magkasundo pa ay dapat pahintulutang mag-diborsyo para ang mga ito ay legal na makapag-asawa uli?”.
(Married couples who have already separated and cannot reconcile anymore should be allowed to divorce so that they can get legally married again. Agree or disagree?)

He states, further, “Open ended questions are ideal, except that they are more difficult to survey; but the data would be richer than that provided by SWS.” A better line of questioning could and should have been presented thus:

1. What is marriage?
2. Are you married?
3. What is divorce? (Some people may not know the distinctions between legal separation, which is available in the Philippines, and divorce.)
4. Are you in favor of divorce or not?
5. What are your reasons?

Not surprisingly, the Church and religious freedom are yet again under attack, but the Philippine clergy are standing firm.

Besides this, there are already laws and agencies in place for those wanting to end a marriage.

Abuse could be a sign that there are indeed grounds to have a marriage declared null and void, though not necessarily. Halfway houses and women’s crisis centers are available to victims of abuse, and the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Law (Republic Act No. 9262) already protects them. The obvious consideration here is that men can also be abuse victims, and there is currently no law in place that protects or benefits them.

Legal separation is also available, though not many avail of it these days. While nothing stops couples from separating, a legal separation works like divorce, without the right to remarry. The conjugal partnership is dissolved and the custody of children decided by the court. Obtaining a legal separation benefits abandoned spouses and children.

For Catholics who want to remain faithful to Church teaching, annulment is available. A declaration of nullity says that the couple was not really married in the first place, and can therefore marry. People object that getting an annulment is too tedious and expensive to bother with, but there is no guarantee that divorce will be less tedious or cheaper to obtain. Clergy and laity alike agree that reform of the annulment process is needed, and this discussion is ongoing. More canon lawyers are needed to solve the problem of tribunals being understaffed. Besides this, there is still the task of making sure Catholics understand what annulment is and why determining if a ground really does exist takes time.

For civil annulments, most fees are actually lawyers’ fees. Of course, there is the additional problem of the Philippine judicial system, as a whole, having a huge backlog; courts’ dockets are consistently clogged.

Right now, House Bill No. 4408 is pending in Congress. But Filipinos would do well to pay attention to and understand other pending bills. One option is to consolidate these and take the good, choosing provisions that will help strengthen marriage, encourage marital fidelity and penalize marital infidelity, while protecting/benefiting the victims, thereby serving the Filipino family better.

We could argue that Filipinos are naturally resilient, and they are, but that doesn’t absolve us from the responsibility to find the best answer possible. This is a difficult task, but not insurmountable. Both Philippine Church and state can respond to citizens’ needs AND still say no to divorce.

ETA helpful link: Some Clarifications on Divorce, Declaration of Nullity, and Legal Separation

Click here for Part 2.
Click here for Part 3.