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“Legalization of Divorce in the Philippines”

(Position Paper)

SUBMITTED BY:

MLYJ D. M

SUBMITTED TO:

Mr.
INTRODUCTION

What is marriage if the couple holding it in is already damage? Welcome to the 21 st century
where married couples has a choice to cut ties with their spouses legally. “Divorce” as what the
world calls it, in which is a legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other competent body.
"Divorce" comes from the Latin word “divortium” which means separation. It is also equivalent to
the word “divort” or “divortere.” "Di” means apart and “vertere” means to turn to different ways. It
started around early modern period (16th-17th century), where Henry VIII wanted to divorce
Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn. This offers a divorce in the ‘eyes of the state’ but not in
the ‘eyes of God’. Which by this leads to a reformation in order for Henry VIII to pursue his wish to
be legally separated to Catherine. Consequently, divorce became legal in the said era but
respectively for the English church only. Apparently, this action helped the other countries to adapt
the type of law in attaining freedom from an irreconcilable, abusive, adulterous/concubinage, and
or a forced marriage. We believed that this “Divorce” is about time to be known in the Philippines,
about time to legalize it. Did you know? According to a 2017 Social Weather Survey: 53% of
Filipino adults agree to legalize divorce for irreconcilably separated couples. By that survey alone,
we can see how Filipinos this past decade to be understanding and open-minded to divorce,
because they know that the country extremely needs it. It is not just couples are irreconcilable
anymore, the people are aware of the possible reasons of one’s partner to wish a legal separation
in order to find someone they can be with happily and genuinely. This position paper is all about
factual reasons in favor of legalizing divorce in which the members are sharing the same
standpoint of being pro to it, as this paper will also present the positive effects once this issue
became legal to the Philippines.

NOT SOLUTION TO END VIOLENCE BUT SOLUTION TO LESSEN BAD CONSEQUENCE

Domestic violence is always the first thing that comes to mind when people think about
domestic abuse. Domestic violence, on the other hand, refers to any effort by one partner in a
marriage or romantic relationship to manipulate and dominate the other. Domestic violence and
harassment have one and only goal: to obtain and retain complete power over you. We can’t
control the temper of the people in the relationship. When your spouse abused your dignity, hurt
you physically and emotionally you have the right to ask a divorce. When two people get divorce,
they avoid to hurt each other verbally or physically. If you choose to stay, you’ll be abuse in the
rest of your life but if you let go and choose to separate, you will hurt emotionally and mentally but
you will be healed someday. Legalizing divorce will not eliminate abuse in our country, but it will
reduce the number of people who are victims of it. For instance, suppose that there is an abusive
husband who was divorced by his wife. Do you believe that if the man finds another girl, she will
not be perplexed as to why he was divorced? the same as the women. Before entering the world
of marriage, people will think. They will not get married if they are aware of a man's or woman’s
abusive history. We all know that if one of the couple is violent there is a chance that a child will
also be a victim of it. We need a law that favors legalizing divorce in order to track and reduce the
number of cases of abuse in the Philippines.

VALUING LIFE OVER MARRIAGE

Life and marriage are both valuable, but what will you do if you get married and experience
abuse or when a partner cheats on you? Divorce can help people who have been abused,
especially when their problems are unsolvable. We value marriage, but more importantly, we value
the lives and safety of our spouses and children. We understand that if the relationship is no
longer working, instead of hurting and cheating on each other, why don't opt to divorce? Divorce is
common in a large proportion of marriages. It appears to be the end of the world at the time.
However, many divorcees end up remarrying, divorcing, and even marrying for the third or fourth
time. Nothing is wrong with that. Marriage is not a mistake in and of itself. It is a partnership, and
whether it turns out to be a dream or a nightmare it is entirely dependent on the individuals
involved, not the institution of marriage. Truth to be told, marriage is a sacred union by the virtue of
church. However, knowing that as of 2019 PSA statistics: 38.6% Filipinos contracted through civil
ceremony seeing it as a union in state law. Perhaps people should also have a choice to a divorce
knowing that there is a separation of state and church. Couples who don’t want to be the divorce
choose a church wedding, but if the couple wants to take a safe course of marriage, they should at
least have a choice the civil wedding that in favor to divorce, if implemented. After all, church and
state has an equal value of marriage is just that in state we want it to attain a legal process out of
a wrongful marriage.

INEVITABLE EFFECTS IN PSYCHO-EMOTIONAL HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN

When custodial rights are judicially determined, children must choose between their mother
and father, which is a traumatic experience for them. According to study, a youngster as young as
6 months old might be badly influenced by a parent's disagreements. Parents fighting has an
impact on children of all ages. According to other studies, young adults up to the age of 19 can be
sensitive to marital difficulties in their parents. If you stay in a toxic relationship with a toxic
environment, or if you are toxic as well, it will affect the children's mental health in the same way
as divorce do, but the difference between the two is that when they stay in a toxic relationship, the
children may rebel because he/she see their parent fussing and arguing every day. When parents’
divorce, they will advise and teach their children to live normally because they will continue to
support them. In that case, we will implement policies focusing on separated parents'
responsibilities to their children. In simple terms, whether a married couple stay in an irreconcilable
marriage that it’s full of fuss and physical harm or divorce, both has an effect to the their child. It is
just a matter of proper care and understanding from the father and mother in raising the child
separately, in which it could grow and foster much better psychological effects to the children.

REVISION TO THE CONSTITUTION & MARRIAGE NOWADAYS

Divorce can be constitutionalized, if only the government would consider the possible
elements that causes married couples to separate. Based on the articles we have read about what
led to US, Great Britain and Spain whose which most similarly to our religious belief and yet they
have divorce law. The countries that I have mentioned, commonly to them the main reasons for
their divorce are: they want to marry their mistress, to cohabit with their lovers, to end the nonstop
fights and or to leave an abusive marriage. In which are also a common miseries between couples
here in the Philippines, these reasons are enough to be a holding grounds to discuss divorce
rather than dismissing it. Do we even need our country to have a pile of cases about this because
they cannot be separated to their “lawful” partners, why do not the Philippines have a lawful
protection in terms of marriage? If the rebuttal is because it stated in the 1987 Constitution Article
XV Sec. 2 that marriage is an inviolable institution, we believed we can start to put a revision into it
fully, why not make the divorce a way for a marriage to be also nonexistent that makes the both
divorcees to have a permission to be remarried again as they have not even get married at all?
We have annulment law, the grounds of it to file a case is somehow also similar to the condition of
what divorce would be if passes. It mentioned that marriage is inviolable and yet we have an
annulment, making that law not serving its sense. Why don’t we put a revision to the law? That
divorce can be permitted if the couple held a civil wedding ceremony, couples who chose church
wedding cannot be divorce in which they can add to the grounds of the divorce bill, matter of
discussing and studying further to think for its counterpart as to why Philippines needed divorce to
be a law by allowing to use the Article XVII Sec 2. in which 12% or more of the registered voters of
Filipinos can ask for a petition to it. After all, we have a law that separates the church and states,
there is no need to entangle this issue to a more heated meetings, a church must also respect the
states condition as what have been the state doing to the them.

Love, dedication, humility, patience, forgiveness, time, communication, selflessness,

honesty, and trust are all important aspects of marriage. Marriage is also regarded as sacred in
the Bible. We all know that marriage is a good thing, especially when both partners are deeply in
love. But why do married couples harm their partners physically and emotionally? Because they
have forgotten the values of it. They lose interest in their partners. That is why we must agree to
make divorce legalized in the Philippines. Divorce can help people who are unhappy and are
subjected to abuse in their marriages. There will be a process before we get divorced. We can't
divorce unless you have a specific reason. Not honoring of what the bible meant of what Love is,
of the values of marriage. It makes the marriage union useless, isn’t it sound ironic and hypocrite
that the anti-divorce keep using the bible as a reference to use against the pro sides but most of
the crumbling marriages keep doing the opposite of what the bible deemed marriages to be? We
believed that nowadays divorce is a necessity to a married couples that is not just causing harm
inside their relationship but also to the people surrounding them. Furthermore, if Filipino muslims
has a choice for a divorce, wouldn’t be unfair to other Filipinos who are in dire need of it just
because of their religion differences but they both are carrying the same nationality, knowing for a
fact that most Filipinos are just raised in a Catholic households in which they don’t have a choice
to be estranged from because they just got used to that religion. There a lot of things to consider,
as Christian is not only the religion we have here in the Philippines.

SUMMARY OF THE REASONS

Divorce is the legal separation of a marriage by a court or other legal authority, which
began in the early modern period when Henry VIII wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon. In the
mentioned era, divorce became legal, but exclusively for the English church. As a result of this
action, other countries were able to implement the kind of law in order to get freedom from an
incompatible, abusive, adulterous, or forced marriage. Domestic violence (23.5 %) is one of the
most common causes of divorce. Domestic violence is when one spouse in a marriage or love
relationship seeks to manipulate and control the other. The tempers of the persons in the marriage
are beyond our control. With divorce, you have the right to end the marriage, if your spouse has
violated your dignity by physically and emotionally abusing you. To lower the number of incidents
of abuse in the Philippines, we need a legislation that supports legalizing divorce. In fact, as
shown in a 2017 social weather survey, 53% of Filipino adults are in favor of legalizing divorce. In
general, we must prioritize life above marriage, as well as the lives and safety of our spouses and
children. We are all aware that divorce has a significant impact on children in particular. In that
case, you need to educate them on how deal with difficulties of life and the nature of relationship.
Above all, it shows that in this position paper focuses on factual and rational reasons in support of
legalizing divorce in the Philippines.
POSITIVE EFFECTS OF DIVORCE IN GENERAL

When it comes to divorce, many people just think about the bad sides of the situation. It
really is true that when a marriage does not work well, it is tragic. However it may have not worked
for a good reason. There are many positive impacts of divorce as well as improvements.

Here are a few solid reasons why divorce can be positive, beneficial and including
improvements:

 Putting an End to Abusive

- Every day, we read or hear on the news about women who have been abused by
their husbands as well as vice versa to the point of death. It's also not uncommon to hear of
a spouse having extracurricular relationships or other cases of infidelity and violence.
According to studies, violence happens at least once in two-thirds of all marriages, and
approximately 95% of the victims of domestic violence are women. Fortunately, Divorce is a
weapon that can be used to exit an abusive relationship. Divorce may also be a more
peaceful and less painful manner of cutting relationships. Indeed, Because of the popularity
of abusive relationships in the Philippines, 53% of Filipinos favor legalizing divorce.
 Giving Your Children the Gift of Modeling Healthy Relationships
- By choosing to stop a terrible marriage, it allows your children in seeing you make
failures – and then learn from it. Moreover, you teach the children a crucial lesson in life:
everything, including people, may change. They also have the chance to learn how to
behave and act accordingly in the situation that they find themselves in a similar situation in
the future. In addition, you’re training them also on how to deal with adversity and
understanding the nature of relationships.
 Improve your parenting skills and become a better parent
- A failed marriage affects your happiness and vitality, leaving you unable to care for
your children since your whole focus is on your marriage. Yet, you may realize that after the
divorce, you have more time to take care of your children and focus with them, same thing
with yourself. With that, you will also have time to improve your parenting skill rather than
staying in a marriage that can no longer be fixed.
 Healthier You
- Being in an unhappy marriage causes you to be stressed and unhealthy on many
levels: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. However, by divorcing from an
unhealthy relationship, you could not only become healthier physically, mentally,
emotionally, and spiritually, but you may also add years to your life with happiness.
 Self-Confidence, Self-Reflection, Self-Healing and Self-love
- One of the most successful outcomes of divorce is the development of self-
confidence, self-reflection, self-healing, and self love. Once you've made it through the
change, you'll feel alive and confident in your decision to improve your life. You will
immediately develop your self-esteem, sadness will disappear, and you'll be able to enjoy a
new relationship with a new self.

CONCLUSION
In overall conclusion, this position paper demanded to be noticed not to be
dismissed. Legalizing divorce is a serious societal issue that has been going on for decades
to be agreed with. From the 53% of married Filipinos who are in favor of divorce because of
the increasing number of domestic abuse, child trauma, irreconcilable marriages and extra-
marital issues inside a marriage that in needed of divorce. By noticing these grave issues,
the government should start to reconsider the divorce bill to a divorce law. As we all know,
divorce has a greater means of use, lesser than the cons of it. The duel between the state
and church should also have a further discussion to meet both terms and compromise
because it is not only the church and state are the variables to marriage choosing to
divorce, the couples who can no longer manage to fix the marriage are the main variables
here. In the end there are also good and positive effects of divorce, yes there might be
negative factors as we cannot avoid it in any law the senate wants to implement but an act
utilitarianism is better than no saving of life that can prosper once separated, if the affected
couple keeps living together the situation can be bloodier.
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