Leonen: PH laws making it difficult for Filipinos to leave unhappy marriages

Philippine laws are making it difficult for Filipinos to leave unhappy marriages, according to a senior associate justice of the Supreme Court.

“Marriage as the foundation of the family no longer reflects the present realities and sensitives of many Filipino families,” Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen said in a recent lecture at the UP College of Law.

Leonen pointed out that the Philippines is the only country that has no absolute divorce, noting that divorce laws were prohibited in the country during the Spanish colonial period.

“The antiquated form from our colonial past is still codified in our laws and is still being reiterated in jurisprudence 135 years later,” he said.

"Perhaps if we truly want justice, we will see how antiquated our laws are. If we truly are for justice, we will feel how we impose a burden that is a vestige of our colonial past, that even our colonizer chose to no longer impose on their own people.” 

Divorce bills are currently pending in Congress. In the Senate, the bill was approved at the committee level in September last year while at the House of Representatives, a similar bill was approved by a committee in March 2023 but was later returned to the panel for further discussion.

'Being different'

In the same lecture, Leonen said being different does not equate to being abnormal.

“Those who establish and maintain relationships and love differently from the ideals of the conservative Catholic majority are not less human, they are no less Filipinos,” he said.

Leonen stressed that the capacity to love is a “human capacity.”

“You are not less human just because you find love in the same biological sex. You are not less human if you want a relationship that is different from marriage. You are not less human if your premise with another is that there is no forever but you can work to be with each other for as long as you both can,” he said.

The senior associate justice said that the country’s laws must be read from “more contemporary” lenses. —Joahna Lei Casilao/KBK, GMA Integrated News