House panel OKs absolute divorce bill

MANILA, Philippines — The House committee on population and family relations unanimously approved on Tuesday the proposed absolute divorce bill.

The measure will now be up for plenary debates. The bill seeks to reinstate absolute divorce as an alternative mode for the dissolution of marriage.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, one of the bill’s authors, said the approval was “a momentous occasion for countless wives, who are battered and deserted, to regain their humanity, self-respect and freedom from irredeemably failed marriages and utterly dysfunctional unions.”

If passed into law, Lagman said divorced couples would be allowed to remarry.

—NESTOR CORRALES