Philippines urged to remove the word ‘divorce’ from marriage dissolution bill to enable passage

The Philippines could be a step closer to passing legislation on marriage dissolution if the word “divorce” was removed from it, Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero said.

Speaking to the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines on Tuesday, Escudero suggested that expanding the grounds for nullifying marriages – without referring to “divorce” – might lead to the enactment of the proposed Dissolution of Marriage Bill after decades of stalled efforts.

“Remove the word divorce,” he said of the bill. “We [already] have divorce in our country, it’s just not called divorce. It’s called nullity of marriage.”

The Philippines is only one of two countries – aside from the Vatican – where divorce is not legally recognised, with the only options for ending a marriage being annulment or legal separation.

Multiple attempts to legalise divorce have been made over the years but strong opposition from the Catholic Church and conservative lawmakers has stalled such efforts, leaving many Filipinos trapped in failed marriages.