Are you for or against the legalization of the Divorce Bill??

Monday 11 July 2011

Taking A Look at the Alternative


A girl named Marita was rushed to the hospital because of violent beatings from her husband. She wanted to result to annulment but she said that she will return to her husband “for the kids”. This violent beating was a cyclical process in Marita’s everyday life. No separated from her husband who almost had killed her, she wants to start a new life with her and her children, to start a new home and to be happily married again.

Annulment only allows a legal separation through a legal settlement. This will not allow any of the parties to remarry. This completely eradicates the idea of marriage and it makes people stuck, still, in their abusive marriages.

“…according to the Philippine National Police Women’s Desk, have been increasing in recent years: from 1,100 cases in 1996 to over 6,500 in 2005, almost a six-fold increase. Of VAW cases filed from 2001 to 2007, domestic violence comprised 76.2 percent. The perpetrators were mostly the victims’ husbands.” (2011, Philippine National Police Women’s Desk)

This just shows that women are beaten up and are victims of domestic violence. This is the case in almost all the marriages that are abusive in the Philippines. These are the propositions in legal separation or nullity of marriage.

1. Legal separation, which allows the couple to separate on the basis of repeated violence and physical abuse, sexual infidelity, conviction of a criminal offense with a penalty of more than six years, and abandonment. But this option does not allow the couple to re-marry and requires that they maintain fidelity. So individuals legally separated from their spouses should not have any sexual relations, lest they be charged with concubinage or adultery.
2. Declaration of nullity of marriage declares a marriage void from the very beginning. Children in this type of marriage are considered illegitimate. This legal option is available to minors who married without parental consent and those who were married by an unauthorized person. Bigamous marriages, mistaken identity, and incestuous marriages may also be declared void from the very beginning.
3. An annulment declares the marriage legal until it is declared void. This legal option is available to minors married without parental consent and to individuals who may have been of unsound mind at the time of the marriage. Couples married under deceitful circumstances such as the failure to inform the other party of a sexually transmitted disease, a pregnancy involving another man, criminal conviction, addiction, impotence, or homosexuality may also file for annulment. Article 36 of the Family Code states that a marriage can be declared void if one of the parties is psychologically incapacitated to perform his or her marital obligations. This has often been used by couples seeking a way out of marriages and is sometimes dubbed as the “Philippine de facto divorce law.”

Annulment is just a legal separation and does not allow women to have a right to be happily remarried. This completely rejects the idea of new life-- divorce does.



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