Nearly a quarter of a century ago, women’s rights activist Elizabeth Angsioco and the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines, which she heads, invited Congressman Victor Ortega from the northern province of La Union to discuss a hot but forbidden topic – divorce.
Soon afterwards, “he was threatened to be excommunicated by the Catholic Church,” Angsioco said.
She had a personal reason then for wanting a divorce law. Her husband was working abroad and had stopped all communication and support for their three children for 10 years. Her only recourse was annulment of marriage but, from others’ experience, it was “very problematic”, she told This Week in Asia.
Now 66, Angsioco finally sees the legal battle to revive the Philippines’ divorce law turning, with the Lower House approving a divorce bill last month, for the second time in history since 2018. The previous bill six years ago died in the Senate.
Still, it is too early to declare a victory. Only 260 of the 316 lawmakers actually voted: 131 chose “yes”, 109 “no”, while 20 abstained. Later, a “recount” showed the yes votes reduced to 126.
The onus now lies with the 24-member Senate. Angsioco said voting was still down to the wire, with senators possibly switching sides at the last minute. Should the bill clear the Senate, it will be reconciled with the House version, voted separately again by both chambers before it is transmitted to the president for his final approval.
“We still need to do a lot of work” convincing senators who had not issued any statements for or against, she said.
Two sources inside the Senate separately told This Week in Asia on June 7 that an informal survey of the 24 senators showed the voting would be “very close”.
The Senate version is similar to its House counterpart, except that the House version has a special section devoted to giving overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) “priority” in setting hearings with the family court.
Angsioco explained this was the result of congressmen’s consultations with OFWs in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Both approved versions propose that any of the following grounds will be sufficient for “absolute divorce”: after five years of informal separation or two years of legal separation; rape before or during marriage; physical violence or grossly abusive conduct; a foreign divorce; “irreconcilable marital differences … despite earnest efforts at reconciliation”; annulment; sex change.
The changing attitudes towards divorce in the Philippines, where the Catholic Church’s conservative influence remains pervasive, has alarmed the country’s bishops. Three of them, including Monsignor Virgilio David, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, the church policymaking body, swiftly condemned the House approval.
David reminded parishioners in a May 24 homily that marriage is a “sacrament [where] God invites the couple to make an act of faith, not just in each other but in the God who calls them to build a family”.
Not one of the prelates, though, has threatened to excommunicate any lawmaker who approves the divorce law.
Angsioco noted that many senators who reject a divorce law are still personally guided by their Catholic belief that “what God has joined together, let no man put asunder”. With next year being the midterm polls for 12 Senate seats, the church may lobby against pro-divorce politicians seeking re-election.
Divorce remains a contentious issue in the Philippines, as shown by a poll conducted in March by private survey firm Social Weather Stations. Half of the 1,500 respondents supported divorce for “irreconcilably separated couples”.
While many celebrities are for divorce, actor Richard Gomez, a sitting congressman, said, “I voted no for the divorce bill because I believe in the sanctity of marriage.” Gomez, who was once romantically paired with many women including actress Kris Aquino, has stayed married to Lucy Torres for 26 years, but his parents separated early on.
Based on an informal survey divorce advocates made before the Senate adjourned on May 24, 13 of the 24 senators have either not supported divorce in the past, remained silent on the issue, or rejected it outright. They include Senator Cynthia Villar, wife of business tycoon Manuel Villar, who said on May 29, “Everyone knows I have a very happy family life, so I’m not in favour of divorce.”
Her son, Senator Mark Villar, has not commented on the issue.
Of the seven women senators, only three who co-sponsored the Senate bill are for divorce: Risa Hontiveros, a widow; Pia Cayetano who has filed for legal separation; and Imee Marcos who is legally separated.
The main stumbling block appears to be Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero, who said last month that he would rather expand the grounds for annulment because the poor would not be able to afford divorce. Escudero has the final say on which bills should reach the floor for voting and cast a vote in case of a tie.
When told that both Senate and House versions waived filing fees for poor litigants and provided state-assisted counsel, Escudero said he would let a “conscience vote” take place, but did not indicate when.
Another divorce advocate, who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardise the bill’s passage in the Senate, told This Week in Asia that many senators were being “hypocritical” about the issue.
The advocate cited the case of Escudero, who annulled his 10-year marriage in 2011, thus freeing him up to marry actress and international celebrity influencer Heart Evangelista in 2015.
Senator Bong Revilla has not openly supported divorce even though his father, the late senator Ramon Revilla Snr, acknowledged siring 72 children by various women. Bong himself has a son from an affair while married to his wife of 38 years, Congresswoman Lani Mercado.
Senator Jinggoy Estrada, the No 2 in the Senate, said last month he was against divorce. This was even though his mother had to endure her husband, former president Joseph Estrada, having eight children by five women. His half-brother, Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito, is for divorce.
In an attempt to sway votes in favour of divorce, lawyer Mel Sta. Maria, in a post on social media, reminded senators just before they adjourned on May 24 that those “opposed to divorce because of their religious belief, please take heed of what the Constitution commands: The separation of Church and State shall be inviolable”.
The former law dean at Far Eastern University stressed that nothing in the constitution banned “absolute divorce”.
Sta. Maria urged senators to give justice to abused spouses through a divorce law, saying that an attempt to murder one’s spouse was currently “not a ground for annulment”. The only remedy allowed under the current law is “legal separation”, which forbids remarriage, meaning petitioners would be legally separated but cannot remarry.
Both versions of the divorce bill allow remarriage but require estranged couples to observe a “60-day cooling-off period” during which a family court will try to reconcile them.
The 2022 Philippine National Demographic and Health Survey by the country’s statistics authority gave a glimpse of the extent of violence committed by husbands or intimate partners.
Of the 27,821 women aged 15 to 49 who took part in the survey, 13,336 of them reported having suffered physical and sexual violence. The trend showed that older women were physically and sexually abused more compared to younger women.
Only 33 women among respondents aged 15 to 19 revealed they were abused, while 300 among those aged 20 to 29 admitted the same. For the 30 to 49 age group, the number of victims was 829.
Angsioco said annulment was not a sufficient remedy. While annulment assumed the marriage was void from the start, a divorce recognises that the marriage was valid but it “got destroyed”.
One unexpected development that could sway senators in their vote is the June 5 statement on divorce by the Centre for Catholic Theology and Social Justice of the highly influential Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University. Senators Francis N. Tolentino and Estrada, who are viewed to be against divorce, studied in Ateneo.
Theologians based in Ateneo described the divorce bill as “a public policy issue, not a theological one” and said “there is a perceived need for divorce in our country”.
Many women in abusive marriages “find themselves financially and socially vulnerable, and lacking in legal support,” the theologians said, urging church leaders to “listen to their heartbreaking stories”.
Sta Maria, who has handled family law cases, told This Week in Asia that the Ateneo statement was “powerful”.
He also said nothing in the proposed divorce law barred religions from treating a divorced person who remarries as someone “living in sin”.
As for Angsioco, she said she decided early on not to remarry and therefore saw no need to file for annulment. Two years ago, news of her husband’s death reached her.
Meanwhile, with or without a divorce law, the Philippine Supreme Court further relaxed annulment rules in 2021. In a decision penned by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen on the annulment petition of Rosanna Tan Andal, he noted that when Rosanna fell in love with Mario Andal “on the wings of poetry”, she failed to realise that her childhood friend – who had confessed unrequited love for her for 20 years before their marriage in 1995 – was psychologically incapable of love.
Leonen ruled in her favour, saying that her error was “a mistake too easy to make as when one sees through rose-coloured glasses”.
