JULY 27, 2011

NR # 2477

Bill legalizing annulment of marriages by religious sects filed

A lawmaker has filed a bill recognizing annulment of marriages by various religious congregations in the country. Rep. Pablo Garcia (2nd District, Cebu), author of House Bill 1290 to be known as An Act Legalizing Church Annulment Or Dissolution of Certain Marriages, said under the Civil Code of the Philippines, only Muslim divorces or dissolutions of marriages are recognized by the Philippine government. Garcia said the government does not recognize annulment of marriages by other religious sects because there is no pertinent law to allow it. Among the religious sects in the Philippines are the Roman Catholic Church, Aglipayan Church, Mormons, Assemblies of God, Iglesia ni Kristo, Jesus is Lord, Ang Dating Daan, United Church of Christ in the Philippines, Victory Christian Fellowship, and El Shaddai. Garcia said under the principle of equality before the law, there is no reason why the annulment of marriages by the church or by any religious denomination should not be recognized by the State. To give credence to the principle of equality before the law, the States recognition of church laws is not only right but also logical. The State must also respect the annulment of marriage that results from the application of church laws, Garcia said. Garcia said the principle of the States acceptance of annulment of marriage from certain religions like the Muslim should also be applicable to all other congregations. He said if Muslim divorces are legalized, there could be no serious objections to recognizing the annulment of a marriage by a church or by any other established and recognized religious denominations. The law recognizes as valid a marriage consummated in accordance with the laws of the church. Thus, the State respects the laws of the church, Garcia said. Marriage, therefore, is an element in the exercise of religious freedom. So logically, if the marriage, insofar as the contracting parties are concerned, is validated by the laws of the Church, then it necessarily follows that by the same laws, such marriage can also be invalidated or annulled, Garcia said. Under the bill, whenever a marriage duly and legally solemnized by a priest, minister, imam, rabbi or presiding elder of a church is subsequently annulled, the government is mandated to recognize it. Divorce had been part of the countrys legal system and widely practiced among ancestral tribes in Palawan, Nueva Vizcaya, the Cordilleras, the Manobos and Moslems of the Visayas and Mindanao Islands. When the New Civil Code took effect on August 30, 1950, divorce was disallowed under Philippine law. Only legal separation was available. (30) jy