MANILA, Philippines – In his first categorical statement regarding marital relationships, President Aquino – a 50-year-old bachelor – declared yesterday that he favors legal separation over divorce, which he said is a “no-no.”
“My own personal position at this point is that a study will have to be made. Divorce is a no-no, but in legal separation, that will be very, very stringent… the couple must pass through the eye of a needle,” he told Palace reporters in a chance interview.
Mr. Aquino, guest of honor at the 3rd Philippine International Motor Show organized by the Chamber of Automative Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc., reiterated that the legal separation process should make sure that differences are indeed irreconcilable.
“We really have to ascertain that they really have irreconcilable differences,” he said.
“But at the end of the day, they are allowed to re-marry,” Mr. Aquino added, giving sympathy to a married person’s mistake. “Definitely I cannot support something like what they are doing in Las Vegas, where you get married in the morning and you’ll get divorced in the afternoon,” he said.
“But I do recognize that there are unions that were wrong that no matter what interventions are done, no matter what counseling are done, they really cannot stay together,” Mr. Aquino said.
The President refused to make any comment, however, with regard to the nullity of marriage his sister Kris filed against her husband James Yap, when asked whether the Office of the Solicitor General would oppose this.
It is the policy of the state to oppose the sanctity of marriage, and it is the OSG - which is under the executive department - that exercises jurisdiction in such petitions. Mr. Aquino has appointed Joel Cadiz, a supporter, as solicitor general.
“I appointed the OSG and if I make an opinion, the OSG might be guided by my opinion and that will be a disservice to the person,” he justified. “Sorry but I will look into that, because what I studied the other day was divorce.”
“And it falls to my sister. Again if I say any opinion it might influence the workings of the court, the fiscal etc. I am duty bound not to comment on this,” he said.
Women’s group Gabriela has refiled in the House of Representatives its controversial bill to legalize divorce in the country.
Representatives Luzviminda Ilagan and Emerenciana de Jesus stressed legalizing divorce would give “married couples in irreparable marriages another legal remedy that they can resort to in addition to the country’s existing laws on legal separation and annulment.”
They said a divorce law could help put an end to domestic violence that is still prevalent among married Filipino couples. The Philippines is one of only two countries in the world (excluding the Vatican) that has not legalized divorce.
“For women in abusive marital relationships, the need for a divorce law is real. It is high time that we give Filipino couples, especially the women, this option,” said Ilagan and De Jesus in the bill’s explanatory note.
The measure, now renamed House Bill 1799 (An Act Introducing Divorce in the Philippines), lists down five grounds for the filing of a petition for divorce:
1. Petitioner has been separated de facto (in fact) 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. 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 the spouses suffer from irreconcilable differences that have caused the irreparable breakdown of the marriage;
4. When one or both spouses are psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential marital obligations;
5. Any of the grounds for legal separation that caused the irreparable breakdown of the marriage.