MANILA, Philippines?Several lawmakers on Tuesday slammed the doors on a proposal for a renewable marriage even before it reached Congress.

The advocate of the proposed law, women?s party list group Isa-Ako Babaeng Astig Aasenso (1-ABAA), said it plans to put forth a measure requiring couples to renew marriage every 10 years so that it would not be voided.

The group will join the party-list election in the May 2010 polls.

Speaker Prospero Nograles said he is not in favor of the proposal as it was against his Catholic beliefs.

Nueva Ecija Representative Eduardo Nonato Joson also thumbed it down, saying couples who want to get out of the marriage can resort to annulment.

Manila Representative Bienvenido Abante, a pastor, said making marriage renewable reduces it to a ?mere legal contract? instead of a relationship.

?What is happening to our values? That?s what happens when people don?t believe in absolutes anymore,? Abante said.

Muntinlupa Representative Rufino Biazon said the proposal bodes danger to families.

?The proposed marriage contract expiration should be opposed because it will endanger the integrity of the ties that bind Philippine society,? Biazon said in a statement.

He said marriage does not trap couples into the relationship and is not a violation of human rights because getting into it is an option for men and women.

?To give marriage an expiration is also to give families an expiration. It will be dangerous to open Philippine society to the mindset that marriages and families have a predetermined end,? he added.

Three women lawmakers also opposed the idea.

Representative Liza Maza of Gabriela party list called the proposal ?absurd? and ?outrageous.?

Marriage should not be treated like a rental contract that has an expiration. Marriage, according to the solon, is imbued with social responsibility that should be upheld by couples.

The proposal also goes against the provisions of the Constitution because the highest law of the land clearly advocates marriage and family. It is also anti-women because it would give men the opportunity to leave his wife after 10 years and easily find a new one, Maza said.

Fellow Gabriela party-list Representative Luz Ilagan said making marriage renewable ?reduces a sacred institution to a mere business contract.?

?What if the woman is battered before the 10 years is over? She should be able to get out of the relationship,? she said, adding that divorce would be a better option.

?The proposal ignores realities like what happens to the children, what would be their status? Will we not make it easy for the philandering men to have serial marriage? It?s not a well-thought-out proposal,? Ilagan said in a text message.

Representative Risa Hontiveros of Akbayan party list said marriage should be a lifetime contract, not something that is renewable. But she also said that the current system of annulment should make it easy especially for the abused women to get out of the relationship and ensure support for her children.