Annulments alarm SolGen

Alarmed over the apparent abuse of “psychological incapacity” as a ground for the filing and the subsequent granting of annulment of marriages, the Office of the Solicitor General yesterday said it will step up its watch of unjustified annulment cases.

In a statement, Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera said that her office will see to it that no marriage in the Philippines is annulled or declared void without the evidence required by law.

“We are specifically alarmed with how psychological incapacity has been used by those spouses who wish to have their marriage declared void from the beginning,” Devanadera said, adding that although the parties seeking annulment may not like the intervention of the OSG, as the defender of marriage bonds the OSG cannot allow a marriage to be dissolved without legal justification.

“Although the Supreme Court already laid the guidelines in the interpretation and application of psychological incapacity, some of our trial courts have become lenient in granting petitions for the annulment of marriage based on this,” she said.

Devanadera explained that the Supreme Court ruled that psychological incapacity must be characterized by juridical antecedence, gravity and incurability and not just by mere “irreconcilable differences” or “conflicting personalities.”

“Proof must be given that the spouse who is alleged to be psychologically incapacitated is incapable of performing the duties and responsibilities of marriage and not just because he or she refuses to do so,” Devanadera said.

“Thus, refusal of the husband or the wife to get a job to support his or her family or being a drunkard is not psychological incapacity per se,” she added.

“While we sympathize with couples whose relationships appear to be without hope of reconciliation, we agree with the Supreme Court that the remedy, however, is not always to have marriage declared void ab initio (void from the start),” Devanadera said.

“This is because an unsatisfactory marriage is not a null and void marriage. Again, the Constitution decrees marriage as legally ‘inviolable’ and protects it from dissolution at the whim of the parties,” she explained.

Last February, Devanadera noted that the number of annulment cases filed went up by over 58 percent in the span of just seven years.

According to Devanadera, in 2001, only about 4,520 cases for annulment were filed while last year, it reached a peak of 7,753 cases.

The year 2006 saw 7,138 annulment cases filed, while 2003 had 6,848 cases.