SC: Pinoys divorced abroad should provide foreign law copy

MANILA, Philippines —  In seeking local recognition of divorce granted by a foreign court, all that the Filipino petitioner needs to prove is the divorce law of the country where the divorce was obtained – not the law of the foreign spouse’s nationality, the Supreme Court (SC) has ruled.

In a decision promulgated on Oct. 21, 2024 but released to the media only yesterday, the SC Third Division sent a case back to the Court of Appeals (CA) to give a Filipino woman a chance to properly prove the divorce laws of Kentucky, United States of America.

The petitioner, Rosary Kristine Anido, married Peruvian citizen Enrique Martin Gomez Pomar in New Jersey, USA. The couple, both doctors, later lived in Kentucky. Due to marital issues, the husband ended the marriage by obtaining a divorce decree from a Kentucky court.

Anido then filed a petition before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 92 to have the divorce recognized in the Philippines. She submitted a copy of the divorce decree, along with printouts of Kentucky and Peruvian marriage laws.

The trial court granted her petition, but the Court of Appeals reversed the ruling. The CA said Anido failed to prove that the divorce complied with Kentucky law and that Peruvian law allowed her husband to divorce and remarry, noting that the copies she submitted were not properly authenticated.

In its decision, the SC said that in recognizing foreign divorce cases, what matters is the law of the country that issued the divorce decree. Since the divorce was granted in Kentucky, only Kentucky law needed to be proven.

The high tribunal explained that under Article 26 (2) of the Family Code, a Filipino may remarry if their foreign spouse gets a valid divorce abroad that allows them to remarry.

The SC said that in recognizing divorce decree obtained abroad, Philippine courts must first determine if the divorce was valid under the applicable foreign law, adding that the burden of proving this lies with the Filipino spouse.

The high tribunal cited the international law principle of “comity of nations” which allows judicial acts of one country – such as court rulings or decrees – to be recognized in another, based on mutual respect between states.