Philippines is moving towards legalizing divorce - Photo: AL JAZEERA
According to Al Jazeera, the Philippines is the only place in the world outside the Vatican that does not recognize divorce. In a country where 80% of the population is Catholic, divorce is taboo.
Suffering from being stuck in dead-end marriages
Instead of divorce, Filipinos can only get an annulment, which is a declaration that the marriage never legally existed. In the Philippines, divorce is the termination of a legal marriage, recognizing that the marriage existed and ended at the time of the declaration.
The annulment process in the Philippines can take about two years, cost 500,000 pesos, and couples will usually only get an annulment in cases of abuse, violence or serious conflicts that are no longer possible between husband and wife.
According to the latest statistics from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), only 1.9% of the Philippine population has received a decree of annulment or legal separation.
According to PSA data released in June, only 51 percent of Filipino women participate in the country’s workforce, meaning half of Filipino women are dependent on their husbands or family for income.
Financially insecure and voiceless, women in the Philippines are ranked third among the economically vulnerable in society, after the rural poor and children.
Attorney Minnie Lopez says the annulment process is fraught with difficulties and costs and is designed to make it difficult for couples who no longer want to live together.
After a long struggle and appeal, in May, the Philippine House of Representatives passed a bill allowing divorce. By June, the bill legalizing divorce was sent to the Philippine Senate, opening a way out for many couples living in dark marriages with no way out.
“This bill is designed to help women who are at the end of their rope, financially struggling in violent families. It is also a way out of failed marriages that cannot be saved,” Philippine congresswoman Arlene Brosas told Al Jazeera.
Dispute divorce or annulment?
However, conservative senators have expressed opposition to the bill. “Instead of divorce, why don’t we look at ways to make it easier to annul marriages, simplifying the annulment process for couples,” Senator Jinggoy Estrada said in a statement earlier this year.
Father Jerome Secillano, spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, also spoke out against the bill legalizing divorce. “Why do they insist on divorce when they can amend the existing laws to make the annulment process ‘easier’?” the priest added.
According to Father Secillano, the amount of money people have to pay lawyers in annulment cases is so high that many poor couples cannot annul their marriages.
To avoid this situation, the divorce legalization bill proposes to set the cost of a divorce at 50,000 pesos (about $886), much less than the cost of a normal annulment.
Opportunity for scammers
From the desire to be freed from painful marriages, many women accidentally fall into the trap of fraud rings.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Veronica Bebero, 50, recalled the desperate moment when she was interrogated by police officers inside a closed room at the US Embassy in Manila. At that time, investigators from the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) questioned Bebero about why her US visa application had included a fake marriage annulment certificate.
The woman said she was told by a woman who identified herself as a judicial officer that she could help her speed up the annulment process. “She said I would get the annulment in three to six months,” Bebero said, adding that the hotline agreed to help her get the annulment for a fee of 210,000 pesos (about $3,700).
Since October 2023, the Philippine Supreme Court has ordered the NBI to investigate such scams. However, very few women dare to speak up against scammers because they feel ashamed.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/phu-nu-philippines-trong-ngong-ngay-duoc-hop-phap-hoa-ly-hon-20241001151142148.htm
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