THE TIME FOR LEGALIZING DIVORCE HAS COME

AMONG all the countries of the world, with the exception of the Vatican, the Philippines remains the only one where divorce is still outlawed. This is so even as all other predominantly Roman Catholic countries have already written divorce into their laws.

The opposition to divorce is no longer organic, considering that a clear majority, or 54 percent of Filipinos, support its legalization, according to a survey conducted by the Social Weather Station (SWS).

And it is even dishonest, considering that we have legal separation and annulment as existing legal options for those who want to get out of failed marriages.

Human beings are not perfect. We make wrong decisions, and it is theoretically the duty of the state to provide its citizens the full support to enable them to rehabilitate their lives. A failed marriage, especially when the differences are already irreconcilable, becomes a social prison that could have serious consequences not only for the well-being of the adult parents, but more so for the children who are trapped in these failed marriages.

Legal separation, while severing the marriage bond, does not go far enough because it doesn’t allow the separated couple to legally with other partners. It consigns persons whose earlier marriages ended in failure to a perpetual sentence of not being able to spend the rest of their lives with others, with whom the real meaning of marriage as a happy bond can be celebrated and realized.

Annulment is an expensive and long process which only those with the resources can avail of. Furthermore, what it requires is proof that the marriage was void from the very start. This is easy to prove if the contracted marriage turned out to be bigamous or patently illegal. Otherwise, it entails a painful process of one party having to prove that the other is mentally and psychologically incapacitated at the time of marriage. Couples wanting to have their marriage annulled either feign incapacitation, or literally tear each other apart in painful court proceedings where the severed bond that binds them is further stretched when one party accuses the other of insanity, or psychological impairment, or mental instability for an act that for all intents and purposes was done with mutual consent years ago.

Annulment proceedings not only discriminate against the poor and those who do not have the necessary resources. They also legalize feigned insanity and contribute to the further stigmatization of those who genuinely suffer from mental illness. In fact, if we