Brosas appeals to Senate: Give abused women second chance through divorce
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas has appealed to senators to pass the proposed Absolute Divorce Act, so that women in abusive marriages can have a second chance in life.
Brosas, a staunch divorce advocate, made this appeal on Wednesday after Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada said that the bill would go through the eye of a needle in the upper chamber of Congress.
READ: Divorce bill ‘will pass through the eye of a needle’ in Senate, says Estrada
According to Brosas, lawmakers should base their decisions on the welfare of Filipinos, and not on religious dogma.
“Lawmakers should base their decisions on the needs of the majority of Filipinos. We shouldn’t turn a blind eye to the alarming cases of domestic violence for the sake of religious dogma,” Brosas said in a statement.
“Dahil pasado na ang absolute divorce bill sa House of Representatives, dapat lang na isalang na ito sa Senado at agad na ipasa,” she added.
(Because the absolute divorce bill has been passed in the House of Representatives, this should be discussed at the Senate already and passed.)
Brosas also said Estrada missed the point of the divorce bill, as the Senate official said the divorce will not be a priority because it would not address poverty.
READ: Estrada’s survey shows tight tally on divorce bill at Senate
According to the Gabriela lawmaker, the bill was never intended to solve poverty, but to protect people and children trapped within abusive marriages.
“Senator Jinggoy Estrada’s assertion that the divorce bill will not address hunger misses the point. The proposed bill was never intended to solve poverty; its goal is to provide an accessible and affordable legal avenue for individuals trapped in irreparable and abusive marriages to regain their freedom,” Brosas said.
“The role of the State is to uphold human rights and gender equality, not to entrench patriarchal norms that enable spousal abuse and marital imprisonment of women,” she added.
On Wedneday, Estrada said the proposed divorce law will pass through the eye of a needle in the Senate, noting that there is a neck-and-neck fight for and against the proposal.
Estrada said this after conducting a poll within the Senate, where six senators were in favor of the bill, while five, including him, were against it.
According to him, he is against divorce because he is a devout Catholic.
Last May 22, before session adjourned sine die, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill (HB) No. 9349, or the proposed Absolute Divorce Act, with 126 votes in the affirmative, 109 in the negative, and 20 abstentions.
However, it was eventually clarified that there were 131 votes in the affirmative, with no changes to the negative votes and abstentions.
READ: House approves divorce bill on final reading
Past and present lawmakers questioned the changes in the vote, with no less than Assistant Majority Leader and Leyte 4th District Rep. Richard Gomez asking if the changes were made merely adjusted to get a majority vote.
Concerns about the voting results were first raised by former Senate president Vicente Sotto III, who believes that the divorce bill should have not been approved because it only got 126 votes.
Sotto explained that since the tally is 126-109-20 (affirmative-negative-abstentions), it means 255 House members were considered for the quorum, or participated in the voting process.
A majority vote, if 255 members are to be considered, should be 128 according to Sotto. But staunch divorce bill defender and Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman insists that HB No. 9349 was approved properly, because abstentions are not counted.
