Hontiveros refiles divorce bill

Senator Risa Hontiveros has once again filed a bill seeking to institute divorce in the Philippines, especially for women who are victims of abuse and violence.

Dubbed the “Dissolution of Marriage Act,” the measure provides to legalize absolute divorce to allow married spouses in “irremediably broken unions” to start anew as means “to end their abuse.”

“While the Family Code provides for ground for the dissolution of marriage, the remedies available to are painfully restrictive and inadequate. To illustrate the remedies of annulment and declaration of nullity under the Family Code only allow the dissolution of marital union on grounds that existed at the time of or prior to the celebration of the marriage respectively,” Hontiveros said.

“Legal separation, on the other hand, while recognizing the separation on grounds that may have arisen after the celebration of marriage, does not terminate the marital union,” she added.

“The State’s obligation to provide assistance to families necessarily includes ensuring that married couples are able to avail adequate and accessible legal remedies,” she said.

Grounds for divorce included in the bill are:

• five continuous years of separation;
• the commission of the crime of rape by the respondent-spouse against the petitioner-spouse, whether before or after the celebration of marriage;
• physical violence or grossly abusive conduct under Family Code of the Philippines;

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• a final decree of absolute divorce validly obtained in a foreign jurisdiction; and
• irreconcilable marital differences or irreparable breakdown of the marriage, despite earnest efforts at reconciliation.

Under the proposal, the petition for absolute divorce may be filed separately or jointly by spouses. If the petitioner-spouse are indigent, the court will waive the payment of filing fees and other costs of litigation.

The penalties for divorce are as follows:

• any person in default of providing court-ordered child support and/or court-ordered spousal support, shall be punished by prision mayor and shall be fined of P100,000 to not more than P300,000 on top of unpaid child support and/or spousal support with compounding legal interest computed from date of default until full payment;
• the court shall order an appropriate percentage of the income or salary of the respondent to be withheld regularly by the respondent's employer for the same to be automatically remitted directly to the other spouse; and
• failure to remit and/or withhold or any delay in the remittance of support to the other spouse and/or their common children without justifiable  cause  shall  render   the respondent or his or her employer liable for indirect contempt of court.

— BM, GMA News