Albay 1st District Representative Edcel Lagman refuted claims that a divorce law would destroy families, asserting that a marriage is already broken before a couple seeks divorce.
“Hindi ho totoo ‘yun sapagkat bago magpetisyon for divorce e sira na ‘yung pamilya, sira na ‘yang kasal,“ said Lagman, the principal author of House Bill 9349, during an interview on TeleRadyo Serbisyo.
Lagman cited a Supreme Court ruling, describing divorce as a “merciful interment of a long dead marriage.” He emphasized that the true causes of marital breakdown are abuse, infidelity, and abandonment, not the divorce process itself. “Ito ang sumisira sa kasal,” he added.
He also noted that divorce is not contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, which permits the dissolution of marriage under certain conditions.
House Bill 9349, or the Absolute Divorce Bill, was recently approved by the House of Representatives on its third and final reading, garnering 126 votes in favor, 109 against, and 20 abstentions.
The bill stipulates that the grounds for absolute divorce include the same reasons applicable for legal separation and annulment but grants divorced spouses the right to remarry, unlike in legal separation. Grounds for divorce encompass physical violence, drug addiction, habitual alcoholism, chronic gambling, homosexuality, marital infidelity, and abandonment for over a year without justifiable cause.
Additionally, the bill allows spouses separated for at least five years to file for divorce and includes grounds such as irreconcilable differences, other forms of domestic abuse, and sex reassignment surgery or gender transition by one of the spouses.
