Absolute Divorce Bill in the PH Passes House on 2nd Reading

(SPOT.ph) Divorce in the Philippines may sound impossible, but it's getting nearer and nearer to reality. The House of Representatives has approved on second reading a proposal that brings divorce a step—or a few more, really—closer to becoming legal in the Philippines.

During the plenary session on May 15, Wednesday, the proposal was approved via viva voce or voice voting. This is no small feat, as the first divorce bill in the country was introduced way back 2005. Many attempts have failed since.

"Panahon na [para] bigyan ng second chance sa pag-ibig at buhay ang mga Pilipinong babae, lalaki, bata, at pamilyang nangangailangan nito," Senator Risa Hontiveros, chair of the Senate committee on women, was quoted as saying by Inquirer. The bill will still have to get approval from the senate, too, before ultimately landing on the President's desk for a final yes, a veto, or will simply lapse into law if neither action is taken. 

Hontiveros said that she will "continue to work in the Senate to pass [the] necessary though contentious legislation, despite the challenges we face."

Also read: Absolute Divorce Bill: Provisions, Features, Status

What is the House Bill No. 9348, a.k.a. the Divorce Bill

House Bill No. 9348 or the Absolute Divorce Act is a proposal that seeks to reinstate divorce in the country as a means of dissolving marriages.

What counts as grounds for absolute divorce?

Under the House Bill No. 9348, the following are considered grounds for absolute divorce:

• Physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner
• Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to change religious or political affiliation
• Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner, to engage in prostitution, or connivance in such corruption or inducement
• Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more than six (6) years, even if pardoned
• Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism or chronic gambling of the respondent
• Homosexuality of the respondent
  Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage, whether in the Philippines or abroad
• Marital infidelity or perversion or having a child with another person other than one’s spouse during the marriage, except when upon the mutual agreement of the spouses, a child is born to them through in vitro fertilization or a similar procedure or when the wife bears a child after being a victim of rape
• Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner, a common child or a child of the petitioner
  Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for more than one (1) year.
• When the spouses are legally separated by judicial decree for more than two (2) years, either spouse can petition the proper Family Court for an absolute divorce based on said judicial decree of legal separation

In 2018, House Bill 7303 or An Act Instituting Absolute Divorce and Dissolution of Marriage in the Philippines, was approved on the third and final reading by a vote of 134-57, but it was never deliberated in the Senate. Now, there's progress with House Bill No. 9348.