DIVORCE BILL MOVES TO HOUSE PLENARY

A consolidated bill seeking to allow divorce in the Philippines has hurdled the House committee level and may be up for deliberation at the plenary in a week.

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, principal author of House Bill 6027, said members of the House committee on population and family relations crossed party lines to approve the landmark measure, an “Act Providing for Absolute Divorce and Dissolution of Marriage,” on Wednesday.

It stemmed from the salient features of HB 116, 1062, 2380 and 6027, all seeking to allow the dissolution of marriage and address the concerns of couples in failed marriages.

Alvarez said the bill would likely be deliberated upon at next week’s plenary session.

Under the proposed measure, spouses have the option to file for an absolute divorce, a legal separation, or annulment of marriage.

Section 3 paragraph 2 of the bill states that the government should assure that the divorce shall be inexpensive and its process, efficient.

Its authors agreed that “indigents,” defined under the bill as those who do not have real property of more than P5 million can avail of the court’s services for free.

Cayetano explained that the P5-million ceiling is based on the request of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) during consultations held abroad.

The measure also provides for summary judicial process or an expeditious manner of resolving the petition of divorce but only on these grounds: (a) when the spouses have been separated for at least five years; (b) when one of the spouses has contracted a bigamous marriage; (c) when the spouses have been legally separated by judicial decree for two years or more; (d) when one of the spouses has been sentenced to imprisonment for six years, even if subsequently pardoned; and (e) when one of the spouses has undergone a sex reassignment surgery.

Lagman said the summary judicial proceedings may be concluded in less than a year.