House approves divorce bill on 2nd reading

Members of the House of Representatives during a session on Tuesday, March 21, 2023 (INQUIRER file photo / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE)

MANILA, Philippines — House Bill No. 9348, a proposal seeking to reinstate divorce in the country as a means of dissolving marriages, was approved by the House of Representatives on second reading on Wednesday.

During the plenary session, the proposal was approved via viva voce or voice voting.

The bill was approved two months after it was referred to the plenary by the House committee on population and family relations.

Under HB No. 9349 or the proposed Absolute Divorce Act, the following are considered grounds for absolute divorce:

Physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner

Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to change religious or political affiliation

Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner, to engage in prostitution, or connivance in such corruption or inducement

Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more than six (6) years, even if pardoned

Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism or chronic gambling of the respondent

Homosexuality of the respondent

Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage, whether in the Philippines or abroad

Marital infidelity or perversion or having a child with another person other than one’s spouse during the marriage, except when upon the mutual agreement of the spouses, a child is born to them through in vitro fertilization or a similar procedure or when the wife bears a child after being a victim of rape

Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner, a common child or a child of the petitioner

Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for more than one (1) year.

When the spouses are legally separated by judicial decree for more than two (2) years, either spouse can petition the proper Family Court for an absolute divorce based on said judicial decree of legal separation

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