'Survey should prod Congress on divorce'

MANILA, Philippines – The Social Weather Stations survey showing five of 10 Filipinos approving of divorce should prompt Congress to seriously consider passing a divorce law, an advocate said Thursday.

“This survey also reflects an increased awareness on the issue that will hopefully lead to more productive debates towards the crafting of a divorce law in the Philippines. I hope this prods colleagues in Congress to give attention to and be open to proposals to enact a divorce law,” Gabriela party-list Representative Luz Ilagan said in a statement.

Ilagan and fellow Gabriela Representative Emmi de Jesus authored House Bill 1799 (An Act Introducing Divorce in the Philippines), which seeks to give married couples “in irreparable marriages another legal remedy that they can resort to in addition to the country’s existing laws on legal separation and annulment.”

“We cannot deny the reality that there are marriages that turn sour," Ilagan said.

"There are marriages that are abusive, even violent and there are bigamous marriages. We need to address this reality and give couples in these failed marriages the option of divorce.”

The results of the March to 4 SWS survey released on Wednesday had half of respondents agreeing that “couples who have already separated and cannot reconcile anymore should be allowed to divorce so that they can get married again.”

This was up from the 43 percent who approved of divorce in a 2005 survey.

The survey was conducted among 1,200 respondents in Metro Manila, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. It used face-to-face interviews and had sampling error margins of ±3 percent for national percentages and ±6 percent for area percentages.

by Lira Dalangin-Fernandez