Discussion on divorce bill heats up in House of Representatives

House of Representatives plenary. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — Two lawmakers on opposite sides of proposals to reinstate divorce have used former United States (US) president Barack Obama to prove their point as discussions on the controversial bill continue.

During the latter part of Tuesday’s session, anti-divorce advocate and Cagayan de Oro City 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez noted that Obama — whom he called one of the US’ best presidents — had previously expressed a wish that parents do not separate for the sake of their children.

Rodriguez relayed this to Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman, who was sponsoring and defending House Bill (HB) No. 9349 or the proposed Absolute Divorce Act which seeks to reinstate divorce in the country.

“Let me go to the next article, of Jemy Gatdula on Children and Society.  And let me quote former president Barack Obama, speaking on Father’s Day 2008.  He said — one of the best presidents of the United States — Barack Obama said on Father’s Day ‘we know the statistics […] children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime’,” Rodriguez said.

“That is the president, former president of the United States of America […] Then he continues by saying Mr. Speaker, nine times more likely to drop out of schools, and 20 times more likely — here you go — to end up in prison.  Barack Obama.  He continues: children who grow up without a father are more likely to have behavioral problems,” he added.

Rodriguez said that Obama’s statements support claims that mental issues among children can be associated with divorced parents.

“It’s pretty much acknowledged that depressions, suicidal tendencies, mental illness, the inability to handle stress, are rising in today’s children and the preferred primary villain for this social phenomenon of children growing up without a father,” Rodriguez claimed.

But Lagman reminded Rodriguez that Obama may be the perfect proof that a person can do well even if his or her biological parents are separated.  According to archives from the White House, Obama’s parents — Kenyan economist Barack Sr. and Stanley Ann Dunham — met each other in Hawaii as students but later divorced.

After the divorce in 1964, Dunham remarried — this time to Indonesian Lolo Soetero — in 1965.  Obama, in his book, had good words to describe Soetoro, who eventually separated from Dunham and remarried before his death in 1987.

“Mr. Speaker, Barack Obama is the best example of a child of a single parent who succeeded and became president of the United States,” Lagman said.

“But he said this, Mr. Speaker, although he is successful, there are very few exceptions because, according to Barack Obama — he might be an exception — five times, children who grew up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty.  Probably he did not experience this,” he added.

Divorce has become a hot topic again after HB No. 9349 was brought to the House plenary on February 20.  During the interpellations, Lagman reminded his colleagues that reinstating divorce would not only give separated couples a second chance in love but would also save women who are on the brink of death due to abuse from their spouses.

READ: Bill reinstating divorce now brought to House plenary 

Lagman, last February 22, asked critics of the proposal if they are willing to wait for abused or threatened spouses to die — stressing that marriages die not because of divorce but because of circumstances that led couples to consider divorce.

READ: Lagman to divorce naysayers: Will we wait for abused wives to die? 

Critics like Rodriguez and Baguio Rep. Mark Go, however, feared that allowing divorce would open the floodgates for broken families as dissolving marriages would be easier.