MANILA – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on Wednesday expressed its support for the reinstitutionalization of divorce in the country.
In a position paper, the CHR noted the enactment of divorce law as filed in House Bill Nos. 78, 2593, 3843, 3885 and Senate Bill Nos. 147, 213, and 237 that would recognize and protect the equal rights of women and men during and after the dissolution of marriage.
“An annulment of marriage considers the marriage valid and existing until it is annulled. A marriage may be annulled if there is a lack of parental consent before marriage, and when one spouse found out the existence of the following, during or at the time of marriage: insanity, fraud, duress, impotence, and serious and incurable sexually transmissible disease,” the commission said.
“Legal separation does not actually dissolve the marriage but entitles the married couple to live separately, subject to certain grounds”.
These include repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct; 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; final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more than six years; drug addiction or habitual alcoholism; lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent; contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage; sexual infidelity or perversion; attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner; and abandonment without justifiable cause.
The CHR emphasized that the enactment of a divorce law would protect the rights of women, even men, who are currently trapped in dysfunctional and abusive relationships.
“The divorce law would do away with the drawbacks of legal separation and annulment and allow the parties to move on with their lives,” it said. (PNA)
