Gwen bill to stop ‘bad’ foreigners from marrying

Cebu 3rd district Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia has filed a bill that will set additional requirements for foreigners applying for marriage license.

Garcia, a first-time lawmaker, said House Bill 2387 will help prevent women from marrying foreigners who are “vagabonds or social and moral derelicts in their own country” and whose real motive is to abuse Filipinas.

Under the proposal, foreign male citizens or subjects of a foreign country must submit a certificate of good moral character issued by his home country’s diplomatic or consular official before obtaining a marriage license.

It also seeks to amend Article 66 of the Civil Code by requiring the foreign national to present a certificate of gainful trade, business or employment again issued by his embassy’s diplomatic or consular official.

“Not a few of these male foreigners’ real motive for marriage is to exploit our women by making them work and worse, by sending them to prostitution and other degrading and dehumanizing occupations,” Garcia said in her bill’s explanatory note.

She said the bill is also aimed at curbing exploitation of Filipino women, through mail-order or pen pal, Facebook, website mail, and other Internet-coursed marriages.

The bill was referred to the House of Representatives’ committee on revision of laws chaired by Pangasinan Rep. Marlyn Primicias-Agabas.

In a phone interview, Garcia said she advocated the protection of women especially Cebuanas from the exploitation of foreigners.

“These are additional requirements to protect our women from foreign syndicates or male foreigners whom our women always fall prey to,” she told Cebu Daily News.

“I filed it because that has always been my advocacy in the past especially when I was still the governor of Cebu,” she added.

In her nine-year stint as Cebu’s first female governor from 2004 until June this year, Garcia initiated the creation of the Provincial Women’s Commission (PWC) which is involved in the campaign against trafficking of women and minors. Correspondent Peter L. Romanillos