Should Divorce be Implemented in the Philippines?

The concept on implementing divorce in the Philippines has been an issue for years. In

fact the Philippines is the only country other than Vatican that does not allow divorce due to

religion. GABRIELA Women’s Party proposed House Bill No. 1799 also known as the Divorce Bill.

If passed, the bill allows men and women who are in unhappy and most of the time abusive

marriages to be free and gives guidelines for settling concerns about child custody. In a Social

Weather Station (SWS) survey conducted between March 25 to 28, 2017 concerning how many

Filipinos support in legalizing divorce in the Philippines. The results showed that 30% of Filipinos

“strongly agreed” while 23% showed that they “somewhat agreed” with a total of 53%. On the

other hand, 32% of Filipinos strongly disagree the proposal for legalizing divorce in the

Philippines.

In a marriage, problems and misunderstanding comes to and fro but sadly some

resulted into an abusive and unhappy marriage. Nowadays people find divorce as a solution to

these kind of marriages. According to Meriam Webster Dictionary (2018) defines divorce as

“legally dissolving a marriage”. Many factors can be blamed like a lack of commitment and

equality in the relationship, infidelity, marrying too young, and abuse. And people who are in this

kind of situation uses divorce as a solution to escape from an unhappy and dysfunctional

marriage. According to the Philippine’s Solicitor General’s office, there were 9,117 petitions for

annulment filed in 2010, 61 percent of which were filed by women. However, in the Philippines

with a traditional mindset is not ready for it.

The biggest factor as to why the Philippines rejects divorce is religion. Majority of the

Filipinos are Christians. This means the opinion of the Christian Church matters a lot to its
citizens firmly. Marriage is a public sign that gives oneself to another person. It is considered

sacred because being married means the person is not only making a vow to his or her future

spouse but also to God. And Divorce is considered as a mockery of marriage and if divorce is

allowed the sanctity of marriage will be lost. The value of marriage will lost because people can

just undo and redo. Another point is couples will just use divorce as an easy option out the

simplest problems instead of working through the problem as a team. This can also have a

negative impact to those children of divorced couples.

Although the positive side of legalizing divorce can save many individuals from abusive

marriages, it can also disregard the importance of marriage. A family plays a big role to us

Filipinos. There is really no reason to legalize divorce in our country. Couples just need to be

completely sure of the person they are decided to be married with if they can sustain a happy

and healthy relationship.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/divorce

https://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/06/world/asia/philippines-legal-divorce-battle/

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/06/world/asia/philippines-legal-divorce-battle/

http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/06/14/divorce-bill-providing-a-remedy-for-women-in-abusive-
marriages/

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2015/03/31/bishops-of-philippines-restate-church-stance-
against-divorce/