House Bill 1799 or “An Act Introducing Divorce in the Philippines, Amending

for the Purpose Title II, Articles 55 to 66 Inclusive and Article 26 of Executive

Order 209, As Amended, Otherwise Known As the Family Code of the Philippines,

and Repealing Article 36 of the Same Code, and For Other Purposes”, commonly

referred to by the general public as the “Divorce Bill.” This was filed in July 27,

2010 by Luzviminda Ilagan and Emerenciana de Jesus of the GABRIELA Women’s

Party.

This bill seeks to amend the Family Code to include divorce as a remedy for

valid, yet “failed and irreparable marriages”. This is also in order to solve the

situation of battered women stuck in abusive marriages in order for the

“attainment of [their] full human development and self-fulfillment and the

protection of their human rights” not remedied by a decree for legal separation

which merely allows a separation of bed and board but do not sever the bonds of

marriage. Amending Article 55, the bill proposes five (5) grounds for divorce,

namely: “(1) The petitioner has been separated de facto from his or her spouse for

at least five years at the time of the filing of the petition and reconciliation is highly

improbable; (2) The petitioner has been legally separated from his or her spouse

for at least two years at the time of the filing of the petition and reconciliation is

highly improbable; (3) When any of the grounds for legal separation under

paragraph (A) of this Article has caused the irreparable breakdown of the

marriage; (4) When one or both spouses are psychologically incapacitated to

comply with the essential marital obligations; (5) When the spouses suffer from

irreconcilable differences that have caused irreparable breakdown of the

marriage.” Any of the five grounds above-mentioned would be sufficient for the

severance of the marriage bonds.

Pursuant to the proposed Article 55 (b)(4) and Section 5 of said bill, Article

36 of the Family Code (void marriage due to psychological incapacity) would be

repealed. Psychological incapacity being sought to be included as a ground for

divorce as a recognition of the termination of marital ties as opposed to a void ab

initio marriage. Under Article 36, the psychological incapacity must be shown to

exist during the celebration of marriage—as opposed to which, under this proposed

bill, would have no such requirement.

This bill also proposes to amend Article 26 of the Family Code which

recognizes divorces obtained abroad by an alien spouse to also recognize divorces

obtained abroad by a Filipino citizen “after a determination by a Philippine court

that the same is based on a ground falling under Article 55(B) of this Code.”

It also seeks to eliminate “condonation” and “consent” to any act

constituting a ground for legal separation or divorce as grounds to deny a petition

for the same recognizing the social or economic realities and conditions that the

offended spouse may be in. The removal of these grounds would empower more

the offended party to address the situation.

In the explanatory note, the authors of the bill expressly recognizes the

sanctity of the institution of marriage with the emphasis on the quality of marital

relationships: “when a marriage is no longer viable, divorce should be an option”.