Intense Church opposition vowed

The Catholic clergy will fight the passage of any divorce bill with the same intensity as their campaign against the Reproductive Health bill, said Msgr. Esteban Binghay, episcopal vicar of the Archdiocese of Cebu.

Binghay said that a divorce law would weaken the close family ties of Filipinos because it would only encourage couples to break up if they have marital problems.

He said that couples who are united with the Lord’s blessings are supposed to suffer the challenges together and not to go apart.

Philippine law presently allows the annulment of marriages where a union can be declared void by the court under specific conditions, including “psychological incapacity” of one of the spouses.

The Catholic Church has its own rites for dissolving a marriage.

“Divorce is different from the nullity of declaration of the church,” Binghay told Cebu Daily News.

He said divorce is different because it’s the State that determines if the marriage should be nullified.

“It is entrusted to the church to investigate the validity of marriage,” Binghay said.

He said if the divorce bill would become a law, then it would break a valid marriage.

Gabriela Reps. Luz Ilagan and Emmi de Jesus are the sponsors of the divorce bill at the House of Representatives. It provides how couples would undergo a process and that the court would decide on the merits of each case, custody of children and division of properties.