CBCP exec to lawmakers: Don’t yield to public opinion on divorce

INQUIRER.net PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines ― An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Sunday told lawmakers to not be moved by calls for the legalization of divorce.

In an interview with CBCP News, CBCP Permanent Committee on Public Affairs (PCPA) Executive Secretary Fr. Jerome Secillano said that if the country’s lawmakers uphold marriage as a “permanent and lasting union” they should not defile it by legalizing divorce.

“If our laws very clearly protect marriage as a lasting and permanent union, I cannot understand why some of our ‘honorable’ lawmakers would want to make a mockery out of it,” Secillano said.

“I challenge the lawmakers not to be moved by popular opinion. Vox populi (voice of the people) is not at all times Vox Dei (voice of God)!” he added.

A recent Social Weather Stations survey found out that three out of five Filipinos, or 60 percent, favor the legalization of divorce.

READ: 3 out of 5 Filipinos want legalization of divorce – SWS survey

Meanwhile, he said that those advocating the legalization of divorce because legal separation and annulment were allegedly expensive should instead push lawmakers to make these processes more affordable.

“Even if they argue that it is for the pursuit of one’s rights and freedom to be out of a ‘hellish’ union, there are provisions in our laws which guarantee such,” Secillano said.

“If annulment and legal separation do not appeal much to couples that are on the verge of separation because they take a long time, are costly, and burdensome, then why don’t our lawmakers pass a law to reform the process instead of adding another, that is, divorce,” the priest said.

In a statement released on Friday, CBCP President and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said that there was no need for divorce in the Philippines.

BACKSTORY: CBCP: There is no need for divorce in PH

The Philippines and Vatican City are the only two states in the world, which ban divorce.

RELATED STORY

Lack of divorce law nothing to be proud of–Pia Cayetano