The Philippine House of Representatives approved the Absolute Divorce Act on Wednesday, marking a significant milestone in the country’s legislative history. House Bill No. 9349, also known as the Absolute Divorce Act, passed on its third and final reading during the plenary session on the last day of the 19th Congress’s second regular session. The bill garnered 126 affirmative votes, 109 negative, and 20 abstentions.
The bill, which had been referred to the plenary two months ago by the House Committee on Population and Family Relations, sets out several grounds for absolute divorce. These include physical violence, moral pressure to change religious or political affiliation, inducement to engage in prostitution, long-term imprisonment, drug addiction, habitual alcoholism, chronic gambling, homosexuality, bigamous marriages, marital infidelity, and abandonment without justifiable cause for more than one year.
The passage of the bill comes a week after lawmakers approved it on second reading, moving the Philippines a step closer to implementing a formal legal framework for divorce.
