House committee approves divorce bill

The House of Representatives committee on population and family relations approved a bill that would give way for wedded couples in the Philippines to have an “absolute divorce”.

The approved bill entitled “An Act Providing for Absolute Divorce and Dissolution of Marriage” seeks to give “the opportunity to spouses in irremediably failed marriages to secure an absolute divorce decree under limited grounds and well-defined judicial procedures to terminate a continuing dysfunction of a long-broken marriage.”

This bill would allow spouses to separate legally at a cheaper cost. At present, annulment in the Philippines can cost to more than P250,000.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, author of House Bill 1062 that make up the consolidated divorce bill, said that that there is no sense to make the process hard for the aggrieved partners to annul their marriages.

“With the simple ground of a five-year separation as a valid reason, seeking an annulment of a marriage from courts would be faster, simpler and less expensive,” Barbers said.

The Philippines and the Vatican are the only countries left in the world that ban divorce.

(DAILY NEWS ROUND UP FOR 02/ 22 /18)