The authors of the measure said their proposal was an offshoot of Pope Francis’ position to simplify the procedures for annulling marriages in the Catholic Church.
THE House of Representative has approved the Absolute Divorce Bill on Wednesday.
House Bill 9349 got the final nod with 126 yes votes, 109 no votes, and 20 abstentions.
Under the measure, the grounds for absolute divorce include the same grounds for legal separation and annulment. But divorced spouses are given the right to remarry, unlike in legal separation.
The divorce process is expected to be faster and cheaper, unlike annulment.
Grounds for divorce include physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against the petitioner or a child of the petitioner, drug addiction, habitual alcoholism, or chronic gambling, homosexuality, marital infidelity, and abandonment without justifiable cause for more than one year.
The bill also allows spouses, who have been separated for at least 5 years to file for divorce. Other grounds include irreconcilable differences, other forms of domestic abuse, and when one of the spouses undergoes sex reassignment surgery or transition from one sex to another.
Once the measure is enacted, petition for absolute divorce shall be filed with the proper Family Court within 10 years from the occurrence or discovery of the cause for divorce or from the effectivity of the law, whichever comes later.
The Family Court shall waive the payment of filing fees and other costs of litigation for court-assisted petitioners, and shall appoint a counsel de oficio for them. In petitions with no court-assisted petitioner, the bill provides that attorney’s fees, inclusive of acceptance, appearance and success fees, shall not exceed P50,000 for the entire proceedings. But petitioner and counsel can mutually agree on a higher rate of attorney’s fees.
