THE Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has renewed its call for Congress to pass pending bills on divorce.
This comes as the nation marked the 17th anniversary of Republic Act 9710, or the Magna Carta of Women. Records show that absolute divorce was legal in the country, but when the new Civil Code took effect on Aug. 30, 1950, it was abolished for the general population, leaving only annulment and legal separation. CHR Chairman Richard Palpal-latoc noted that the commission has come up with a position paper which it submitted to the 19th Congress, pressing for the reinstitutionalization of divorce in the country as it endorsed consolidated proposals embodied in several pending House and Senate bills that seek to recognize and safeguard the equal rights of both women and men during and after the dissolution of marriage. ”Such recourse is indispensable to the protection of their dignity, safety, autonomy and overall well-being,” he said.The CHR drew a clear distinction between divorce and existing legal remedies under Philippine law. It noted that an annulment treats the marriage as valid and subsisting until judicially declared void, and may only be granted on limited grounds existing at the time of marriage — such as lack of parental consent, insanity, fraud, duress, impotence or the presence of a serious and incurable sexually transmissible disease. Legal separation, on the other hand, does not dissolve the marital bond but merely allows the couple to live apart, subject to specific statutory grounds. The CHR said that the passage of a divorce law would address the limitations of both annulment and legal separation, offering a more accessible and compassionate path forward for individuals — particularly women — who remain ensnared in dysfunctional, violent or emotionally destructive relationships.
