MANILA – The House of Representatives passed a bill seeking to recognize the foreign degree of termination of marriage and allowing its subsequent registration with the Philippine Civil Registry.
It approved on third and final reading House Bill 7185, which amends Executive Order (EO) 209, or the “Family Code of the Philippines.” At total of 202 voted in favor while three dissented.
The amendment made to Article 13 of EO 209 states that “the Filipino spouse need not seek recognition or enforcement of the foreign decree of termination of marriage.”
“The registration of the duly authenticated foreign decree of termination in the Philippine Civil Registry shall be sufficient proof of capacity to remarry,” the amendment further stated.
Likewise the amendment states that Article 412 of the Civil Code shall not apply in recognizing the termination of marriages referred therein.
Any agreement on the liquidation, partition and distribution of properties of the spouses, the custody and support of common children, the delivery of their presumptive legitimes included in the degree of termination of marriage shall be recognized.
In the absence thereof, the provisions of the Family Code shall be in force, the bill stated.
The bill also stated that its salient provisions may be availed by a Filipino who is married to a foreigner whose marriage has been terminated abroad by either spouse, including a Filipino whose marriage has been terminated abroad prior to the effectivity of the proposed law; who has been divorced from a spouse who had subsequently acquired foreign citizenship; or who has subsequently acquired foreign citizenship and who has divorced from the Filipino spouse abroad./PN
