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[av_heading heading=’JUST ANOTHER DAY | The hypocrisy of it all’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY LUIS BUENAFLOR JR.
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
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This column was inspired by the brave women in the Philippines, who have endured years of sufferings trapped in a failed marriage and stood up to fight for their rights to have a Divorce Law.
THE PHILIPPINES is perhaps the only remaining civilized country in the world that has no law on divorce.
Of course “civilized” is a relative word. As progressive people will say, “How can it be described civilized when it allows women to suffer trapped in failed marriages.”
The Philippines is also the only Catholic country in the world without a proper law on divorce. Italy, where the Vatican is located and of course the seat of the Catholic religion, has a divorce law.
Now why do I say this? Elementary, my dear Watson, the most convenient excuse for everyone in the Philippines against divorce is that it’s against the Bible or the teachings of the Catholic Church which, of course, is stupid and smacks of a racist mentality. The Philippines is not only a multi-racial but also a multi-religion society, the Catholics are just the majority.
And that’s where the hypocrisy lies.
Right now pending in Congress is House Bill 1799 filed during the 15th Congress by the Gabriela Women’s Party authored by representatives Luzviminda Ilagan and Emerenciana De Jesus.
House Bill 1799 has been sitting in Congress for seven years now and is having a hard time even just passing the preliminary stages. It has met all kinds of obstruction, including the proverbial “kitchen sink” and from the way it looks, still faces a lot of difficulties.
Let’s start with this “the convenient excuse” why we should not have a divorce law in the Philippines – that it’s against the sanctity of marriage, according to the Catholic Church. That’s the problem of the Catholics. What about the other Filipinos who are not Catholics i.e. Muslims, Protestants, Atheists, Noranians and Vilmanians? Why ram down their throats the dogmas of a totally different religion?
Anti-divorce advocates say we don’t need a divorce law as there is already a law on annulment of marriage. Ok, so what’s an annulment?
“Annulment of marriage in the Philippines, strictly speaking, is the declaration of a marriage null and void. It is retroactive in character; meaning, the effects go back to the first day you were married. It is also important to bear in mind that annulment of marriage must be based on specific grounds.”
Under Philippine law, two people wishing to end their marriage have limited options. They can file for legal separation, which will allow them to separate their possessions and live apart, but does not legally end a marital union and thus does not permit remarriage.
Or they can get an annulment, which in the Philippines is a lengthy and expensive court proceeding.
According to Article 45 of The Family Code of the Philippines, there are six legal grounds for the annulment of a marriage: lack of parental consent (if either party is at least 18 but below 21 years old) psychological incapacity…consent for marriage obtained by force, intimidation, or undue influence.
An annulment ends a marriage, but differs from divorce in important ways. The parties, for instance, must prove that the marriage was never valid to begin with. Under Philippine law, reasons can include one or both parties having been below the age of 18 when they got married, either party having an incurable sexually transmitted disease, or cases of polygamy or mistaken identity.
To get an annulment in the Philippines you need at least three important factors; an endless source of money, a whole lot of patience and time to spare, and it would help if you have proper contacts in the Office of the Solicitor General. It would seem that the law was made for the ordinary person getting an annulment to be doomed to fail.
This is the sad part about the whole divorce issue in the Philippines. Hypocrisy in the disguise of religion is the underlying reason why it is highly improbable for a divorce law to be passed.
The number one opposition to the divorce law is the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines or CBCP headed by Archbishop Socrates Villegas – he’s the priest who allowed Leila “frailties of a woman” de Lima do her own “homily” in a mass. Of course, he supports de Lima in the same level as Mother Theresa. I need not elaborate the hypocrisy here as it is already common knowledge.
And do you really think that the congressmen will pass a divorce law? I don’t think so; these congressmen would rather remain married to their wives but enjoy their “executive sessions” in either “Pegasus” or “Classmate”. Most probably both. Of course, most of them have their “daisy” kept in some discreet condominium somewhere in Ortigas. They would much rather “bake their cake and eat it too.”/PN
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