FAST FACTS: Ending unions in PH

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Following are some facts about how to end marriages in the Philippines.

2

Number of legal remedies for problematic, irreconcilable marriages in the absence of a divorce law: legal separation and annulment, which are provided for under the 1987 Family Code

P300,000 to P1M

Estimated cost of pursuing legal separation and annulment cases, according to the Philippine Commission on Women

May 11, 2021

The Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling, declared that couples seeking to legally end their marriage due to psychological incapacity, one of the most common grounds cited in annulment cases, will no longer have to present mental health experts to testify in court. The high court agreed that psychological incapacity was “not a medical, but a legal concept.”

1.6 million

Individuals in the country who were separated or whose marriages were annulled, according to the 2020 Census of the Philippine Statistics Authority, an increase from 1.2 million recorded in the 2015 Census

8

Pending House bills seeking to reintroduce divorce or legalize Church annulment

9

Pending Senate bills seeking to institute divorce, recognize the civil effects of Church-decreed annulment, or amend the grounds for legal separation pending

Republic Act No. 2710

Law that established divorce in the Philippines on March 10, 1917

1950

The divorce law was repealed when Republic Act No. 386, or the Civil Code of the Philippines, took effect.

—INQUIRER RESEARCH SOURCES; INQUIRER ARCHIES. PEW.GOV.PH, SENATE.GOV.PH, CONGRESS.GOV.PH