Art. 15: The Civil Code, Contradictory or not?

          The Civil Code states that all Filipinos – where they may be in the world – are bound by Philippine laws on family rights and duties, status, condition, and legal capacity. This says that you can go out of the country and pretend like you are not married but you cannot pretend your whole life. If a person is married in the Philippines, he or she will be married for the rest of his or her life, not unless there will be a legal separation or right now what we call it annulment. The Civil Code solely contradicts the belief of the Divorce Bill. The Divorce Bill separates a couple fully and allows the parties to remarry and live a new life apart from their past, meanwhile, the Civil Code states that they can be annulment, but there can be no remarriages. This means that the Philippines has to choose one law to implement, because there can be no laws that contradicts each other for this will cause chaos and confusion. The issue on remarriages falls under Art. 26 paragraph 2 of the Family Code. This states that ART. 26. All marriages solemnized outside the Philippines in accordance with the laws in force in the country where they were solemnized, and valid there as such, shall also be valid in this country, except those prohibited under Articles 35(1), (4), (5) and (6), 36, 37 and 38. Basically, it says that marriages are supposed to be forever. It is under a holy sacrament and it falls under the beliefs of a true Christian. From a non-legal standpoint, as stated in the article, marriage is supposed to be between two people who swore under the oath of God to love and cherish one another whatever happens or as it is usually said “through thick and thin”. Marriage is supposed to last and couples are supposed to work things out between one another. For me, it is not at all contradicting because the Family Code is just another option. Divorce is also an option; it does not have to get along. Each of which is a solution and people are just given a choice. People are given their own free-will and married couples should have a choice whether or not to stay. The Divorce Bill may be pretty risky for it may give Filipinos the peace of mind that there is such thing or they may probably abuse it by keeping on remarrying every time they feel like remarrying, but it is, I believe; pro-choice. It may not fully be pro-God but at least there is a choice. In life, there are no more dos and dont’s when it comes to the matters of the heart, it is based on the choice of a person. The life we live now is very urban, we are in an ever changing world and we have yet to tackle different opportunities in life as we were deprived before to explore the realities of life. It is not detrimental to try, it is a step forward to being open-minded and accepting that life is all about practicality.

Source:

Divorce and annulment in the philippines [Web log message]. (2006, July 21). Retrieved from http://jlp-law.com/blog/divorce-annulment-philippines/