Divorce should not be an ‘easy’ option for couples – Marcos
MANILA, Philippines — Divorce should not be an easy option for married couples if it would be allowed in the Philippines, presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos said on Saturday during his “The Chatroom” taped interview with broadcaster Erwin Tulfo and Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar.
“There are cases where divorce is called for,” the former senator said.
“There are cases where it can’t really be worked out,” he went on, speaking in a mix of Filipino and English. “But let’s not be like other places where getting a divorce is so easy.”
“Shouldn’t it be that, in your marriage, you have to work on it?” he said. “You have to understand that there are times when it’s hard. There are times when it’s chaotic. But you really have to force it. You’ll say: ‘I’m not going to let this go.’ So that we don’t have, like, divorce rates of 50 percent — 50 percent of marriages end up in divorce.”
“Let’s not encourage that. But there are real cases that I have seen where the married couples who separated, even though we don’t have divorce yet, their kids are better off, and both the husband and wife are better off.)
Marcos also noted that other Catholic countries allow divorce.
“We already have [reached] halfway there. Isn’t it that, after so many years, you are considered legally separated. So let’s take the next step. And if it really can’t be worked out, I think we have to start thinking about it,” he said.
“They say because it’s in the Catholic tradition. Look at all the Catholic countries, they have divorce,” he added. “But don’t make it easy. We must allow our couples, our married couples, to work on their marriage and work hard on it because sometimes it can be fixed. They managed to do it. But don’t give an easy option: ‘I give up.’ They just quarreled, feeling sore at each other, and immediately they divorce. It shouldn’t be like that.”
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