Loophole in Philippine Divorce Law

The Philippines is a unique country in many ways. One of the most striking aspects of Filipino law is that divorce is essentially prohibited throughout the whole country. This makes sense when you realize that a vast majority of the country’s residents are devout Roman Catholics.

The only other country in the world with a similar legal outlook on divorce is Vatican City, the smallest country in the world.

So if you end up wanting a divorce in the Philippines, what can you do? In this article, we’ll go over how divorce law works in the Philippines and the loophole that you need to know about. So keep on reading and we will walk you through all of the information that you will want to know.

Divorce In and Outside of the Philippines

According to Article 15 of the New Civil Code, divorce is prohibited for Filipinos who have been married in the Philippines. It doesn’t matter if the couple lives domestically or in a different country.

With that said, the Filipino Congress is making moves to get divorce legalized. In 2018, the Senate introduced Senate Bill No. 2134, also known as the Divorce Act of 2018. In this bill, divorce is allowed under certain situations.

Those situations include:

• Separation for at least five years
• Irreconcilable differences despite efforts to reconcile
• Marital rape
• Psychological incapacity
• The exhibition of “grossly abusive conduct”
• The occurrence of physical abuse

A few months after that bill was passed, the House of Representatives in the Philippines approved House Bill No. 7303. This bill legalizes absolute divorce. The bill was sent to the Senate but it was never passed.

Also, a Muslim who lives in the Philippines can get a divorce under the Philippine Code of Muslim Personal Laws. This means that if a Filipino Muslim wants to get a divorce, they can do so through the country’s court system.

Separation May Apply Under Certain Circumstances

Couples can petition for legal separation from a court under Filipino law. However, this can only be done under certain circumstances.

In the Philippines, a legal separation is considered to be the dissolution of marital obligations. This includes any established relationships regarding property between the husband and wife.

However, in order to file for this kind of separation, the husband and wife will need to establish reasons for the government to grant the separation. These grounds, or reasons, include imprisonment of more than six years, addiction to drugs, abandonment, or repeated physical abuse, among other reasons.

If the court does approve the legal separation, the couple still won’t be allowed to remarry. This is because the marriage will still be in effect.

Annulment

Annulment is one option that Filipino citizens can utilize to end their marriages. When you get an annulment, the marriage will become invalidated because of mistaken identity, impotence, fraud, or because someone was under the legal age to get married.

While Filipino law does allow for annulments, the legal process for getting an annulment is tedious, expensive, and long. If a court does allow for an annulment, then both parties will move forward as if they were never married. This means that each person will be allowed to get married again.

Under an annulment, the marriage, in essence, never existed.

A voided marriage, as opposed to an annulled marriage, is one where the marriage was not valid from the start. For example, if one partner was younger than 18 years old when they got married, then the marriage is void by law.

Also, if the marriage ceremony was performed by someone who was an unlicensed official, then that marriage would also be void.

The Loophole in Philippine Divorce Law

There is one very important loophole that Filipinos who want to get divorced should know about. If you are a Filipino who is married to a foreigner, then you will be able to get divorced in another country and have the Philippine court system recognize it.

The Filipino will then be able to remarry through a civil ceremony.

You need to be very careful when going about this process and it is helpful to seek advice from a qualified lawyer, such as those at FCB Law Office.

First, in order to qualify, one spouse needs to be a citizen of a different country. A person from the Philippines who has an American green card is still considered to be a Philippine citizen and they are not considered a foreigner.

However, a Filipino has is now a naturalized American citizen would count as a foreigner.

Also, the citizenship status will need to be met at the time that the divorce is filed. The couple’s citizenship at the time of the marriage will not matter at this point.

This means that if two Filipino citizens get married and then one becomes a citizen of a different country at a later point, then the divorce will become recognized by the country’s government.

The Importance of Knowing About Divorce Law in the Philippines

Hopefully, after reading the above article, you now have a better idea of the loophole to divorce law in the Philippines. As we can see, it isn’t easy to get divorced in this country. But by knowing more about the law, you can see what your options are if you or someone who you care about is trying to get divorced.

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