Divorce Bill Has Been Forwarded to the Senate
DIVORCE BILL – The House Bill 9349, or the proposed “Absolute Divorce Act” the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading has been transmitted to the Senate.
According to an update from House Secretary General Reginal Velasco on May 23, a total of 131 lawmakers voted in favor of House Bill No. 9349, while 109 opposed it, and 20 abstained.
Leyte Representative and actor Richard Gomez remarked, “I voted no for the Divorce Bill because I believe in the sanctity of marriage,” during the second regular session of the House of Representatives on May 22, following the final reading approval of the Absolute Divorce bill.
Richard Gomez underscored in his remark that the laws should represent the values of the majority of Filipinos and that the Philippines is primarily a Catholic nation.
The actor-turned-politician said, “Conversely, I believe that our laws must also provide for laws that abide by the religious customs of the majority of the Filipino people. Our civil code, in its present form, simply provides for those whose religious customs sanctify marriage.”
Three weeks after its contentious passage on the third reading, the bill was finally transmitted to the Senate on June 10, announced its principal author, Albay Representative Edcel Lagman.
On Wednesday, Lagman presented reporters with a copy of House Secretary General Reginald Velasco’s letter to Senate President Francis Escudero. The letter requested the Senate’s concurrence on House Bill No. 9349, titled “An Act Reinstituting Absolute Divorce as an Alternative Mode for the Dissolution of Marriage,” which passed on final reading on May 22.
According to the report, if enacted, the bill would “reinstate” divorce in the country and provide spouses with a “fourth mode” to dissolve “irreparably broken or dysfunctional marriages” based on limited grounds.
The three other modes currently allowed under the Family Code are canonical dissolution, annulment, and legal separation.