Divorce in The Philippines

It has been stated by some that divorce is illegal in The Philippines, however this is not always the case. If the act of divorce was illegal, there would be a penalty for the act itself and I am not aware of any such penalty. To be more correct it should be said that divorce is not available in The Philippines. However, a legal instrument made in another country is generally accepted in The Philippines and according to Article 26 of the Family Code: “All marriages solemnized outside the Philippines in accordance with the laws in force in the country where they were solemnized, and valid there as such, shall also be valid in this country, except those prohibited under Articles 35(1), (4), (5) and (6), 36, 37 and 38″. Then it states that: “Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce is thereafter validly obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse shall have capacity to remarry under Philippine law”, although I admit to being unclear what happens when a divorce is obtained by the Filipino spouse under the same conditions, especially when the divorce was obtained against the foreigner’s wishes…

Annulment, although expensive is another option and some use this law correctly, for instance if they were duped by their partner who lied about their true identity, one spouse was already married or was mentally unstable at the time of the marriage etc. However, some people who can afford the expensive attorney’s fees and want to legally dissolve their marriage and can’t avail of a divorce in a foreign country, resort to the misuse of the law by one party alleging something that is not really true & the other party not countering the allegation. Although I do not condone this, I can understand the frustration which causes people to do it.

Prior to the Spanish invasion in the 1500s there was no integrated legal system in The Philippines and for over 300 years since 1521 the Spanish enforced the implementation of Roman Catholic Canon Laws. Since that time, the legal system has developed and changed with society’s needs and trends. It may be one day society will demand that divorce is allowed by law because over time, Canon Law has slowly given way to Civil Law in many areas, therefore it is reasonable to think that at some point in the future, since the Roman Catholic Church has openly allowed (by not legally objecting to) so many dubious annulments and with the growing number of different religions being followed in the Philippines, divorce may not only be legal but that the Canon Laws covering marriage may be dropped and a mechanism for divorce and remarriage may eventually be introduced into the Philippines’ Civil Legal System.