Fault finding

In the long and arduous quest to get a final separation from a spouse, the way can be torture, indeed.

With divorce still not an option for Filipinos, it is essential to argue that one of the arguing two spouses is psychologically incapacitated. Not insane, nothing that drastic. But still, diagnosable as being "psychologically incapable of fulfilling the essential requirements of marriage."

That's the magic catchphrase necessary to fulfill the legal requirement to have a marriage declared void, and to satisfy a judgmental judge. And by golly, for the past two decades, the contortions we saw from family lawyers, both to argue for and against the grant of the petition for annulment of a marriage, were nothing short of an obstacle course in legal gymnastics.

It's a good thing to observe that finally, under the more atheistic leadership of the new Solicitor General Darlene Berberabe, decisions by lower courts that grant petitions for annulment are supposedly no longer automatically appealed by our prosecution arm (interfering busybodies) to a higher court.

Whew. That alleviates the burden of miserable spouses who cannot wait to get rid of their mistake. No need to wait for another decade before marrying someone younger. Oops. I mean, someone more delectable. Double oops. Just someone else, maybe.

Imagine, in one case, the husband had to trace the deep roots of his wife’s psychological disability by digging into her childhood. His exhibit A? The allegation that his wife had an overindulgent childhood, she was a lazy student, and she had poor study habits.

In the case of Tee Ten v. Tee Ten, the Supreme Court noted this important fact about the wife, thus making it imperative for those of us with poor grades in school to hide our report cards from potential spouses. Never brag about how poor a student you were, otherwise you are bound to follow in the tragic footsteps of Nellie Tee Ten. In the same vein, never intimate to your suitor about how spoiled you were as a child, for then you shall be branded as having been overindulged. A sure marker of your incapacity, as confirmed by the highest court.

In that same case, the court noted how wifey was too controlling, because she always asked the husband about his whereabouts. Now we know. Don’t be too nosy. Let your husband have his fun and allow him to tell you only what he wants to tell you. If you ask too many questions, then it’s a sure sign that you are unable to deal with separation anxiety, unable to be by yourself for prolonged periods of time, or just too darn clingy. Get a life - or get declared psychologically incapacitated.

To be fair, the narration of facts included an allegation that the wife sneaked into the mother-in-law’s home to spirit their children away. That might have been a better factual foundation for the august judges, who probably didn’t like the idea of kidnapping in the family.

Meanwhile, it may be apropos to note the new stance by our Supreme Court re the requirement to have a psychologist testify about his or her findings re the spouse. That requirement became an instant barrier to some aggrieved pinoys, who had no access to specialists able to spout about congenital defects and personality disorders.

The Supreme Court has now pronounced that there is no need for such expert evaluation, and courts can just be guided by the crazy facts presented to them by petitioners in reaching the conclusion that the respondent is cuckoo.

At least, until we finally get a divorce law. Still in the distant future, I surmise, as our legislators are too busy playing hypocritical lives, or worse, plundering from our coffers.