THE Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality has approved a consolidated bill which seeks to expand grounds for the dissolution of marriage and instituting divorce in the country.
Senate Bill No. 2443 or the Dissolution of Marriage Act is a consolidation of seven measures filed Senators Risa Hontiveros, Raffy Tulfo, Pia Cayetano, Robin Padilla, and Imee Marcos.
The approval was contained in Committee Report No. 124 filed last Monday.
“While the State continues to recognize the sanctity of family life and endeavors to protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution, it is also dutybound to safeguard the dignity of every human person, guarantee full respect for human rights, uphold the fundamental equality before the law of men and women and protect to ensure the best interest of children as the paramount consideration in all matters concerning them,” the senators said in the proposed measure.
They said the State “shall adopt a divorce policy” in keeping with fundamental freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution, and rights guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention of Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Convention of the Rights of a Child, and other international human rights instruments of which the country is a party.
“The State shall assure that the court proceedings for the grant of absolute divorce shall be affordable, expeditious, and inexpensive, particularly for indigent litigants,” they added.
The measure said the grounds for the dissolution of marriage are five years of separation without a judicial decree for separation; commission of rape by the respondent-spouse against the petitioner-spouse, whether before or after their marriage; there is physical violence or grossly abusive conduct, among others.
Sexual preference is not a ground for divorce unless either of the spouses commit marital infidelity, irreconcilable marital differences or there is an irreparable breakdown of marriage despite efforts of reconciliation.
The committee report still needs to be sponsored on the floor before plenary debates can start.
