Laws give couples hard time to leave unhappy marriages

MANILA — Philippine laws make it difficult for couples to end unhappy marriages, Supreme Court (SC) Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen said.

During a lecture at the University of the Philippines on February 14, the high court magistrate said that the SC issued several decisions recognizing the fact that the living realities of couples and their children are far from ideal.

“Marriage as the foundation of the family no longer reflects the present realities and sensitives of many Filipino families,” Leonen said.

“The Philippines is the only country outside the Vatican that has no absolute divorce law applicable to all citizens,” he added.

On the other hand, the magistrate also pointed out that the Philippines had divorce laws before the Spanish colonial period.

He pointed out that despite Spain modernizing its laws decades ago, the Philippines still follows an “antiquated form from our colonial past.”

“If we truly are for justice, we will feel how we impose a burden that is a vestige of our colonial past, that even our colonizer chose to no longer impose on their own people,” Leonen said.

He also cited situations where divorce is permitted, such as in Muslim marriages under Shari’ah Law and when a Filipino and a foreigner are wed.

Under Article 26 of the Family Code, if a Filipino and a foreigner are married and a divorce occurs in another country, the Filipino spouse “shall have the capacity to remarry.”

‘To be different is not to be abnormal’

Aside from divorce, Leonen talked about various kinds of relationships, the complexities of marriage, the legitimacy of children and annulment.

The magistrate said that those who “love differently” from the ideals of the “conservative Catholic majority” are a diminution of one’s personhood and “are not less Filipino.”

“To be different is not to be abnormal. To be different from the hegemonic definition of what humans should be is not illegitimate. The capacity to love is a human capacity,” Leonen said.