‘Right to be free’: Philippine divorce activists vow to fight on

MANILA - In her bid to convince lawmakers to legalise divorce, Filipino fruit vendor Avelina Anuran has publicly testified about the abuse she said she regularly endured at the hands of her husband.

She also keeps a copy of the medical certificate from the bloody injuries she says he inflicted, hoping it might one day serve as evidence in court. But the mother of two-turned-activist has got no closer to ending her marriage.

The Philippines is one of just two countries – along with Vatican City – where divorce remains illegal.

Last week, the latest attempt to introduce a divorce law evaporated as the Upper House ended its session without even a hearing.

“The Bill has been sitting there for almost a year. They kept passing it around,” Ms Anuran said of legislation passed by the House of Representatives.

The last time such legislation made its way to the Senate in 2019, she painstakingly detailed her experience for a public hearing. But the Bill foundered.

Spouses have a “right to be free”, she told AFP, adding that she would keep pushing for a law.

“Hopefully it will (pass) next year, with new senators coming in.”

Nullification

Ending a marriage in the deeply Catholic society of 117 million is possible only via annulment or “nullification”.

But few Filipinos can afford the fee of up to US$10,000 (S$13,500) and the process does not consider domestic violence, abandonment or infidelity as qualifying grounds.

“I just want to be free from this marriage,” said Ms Anuran, whose estranged husband remains the beneficiary on a life insurance policy she cannot change without his consent.

Campaigners like Ms Anuran believe the tide of public support for divorce is turning, with surveys showing about half of Filipinos now firmly back a change.

Before taking office in 2022, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said he was open to supporting divorce.

But the House Bill sponsored by then Congressman Edcel Lagman faced stiff opposition when it reached the more conservative Senate.

The long-time human rights lawyer, who died aged 82 just days before the window for a Senate vote closed, had called passing the Bill an “urgent” matter.

The proposed law would have compelled courts to provide free legal and psychological assistance to low-income petitioners, capped lawyers’ fees at 50,000 pesos (S$1,160) and mandated divorce petitions be resolved within a year.

The divorce Bill’s co-author, lawmaker Arlene Brosas, said it was “unacceptable” that the Senate had refused to tackle the measure given the “strong public demand”.

She said her Gabriela Women’s Party will refile it when a newly elected Congress convenes in July.

“We will continue fighting for the divorce Bill, no matter the composition of the Senate and House of Representatives in the next term,” Ms Brosas told AFP.

‘Afraid of backlash’

The previous Bill was likely influenced by the mid-term elections in May, family lawyer Lorna Kapunan said.

“Because (half of senators) are seeking re-election, they are afraid of the backlash of the Catholic Church,” she added.

Senate President Francis Escudero had argued the Bill would “create divisiveness”, suggesting instead that the grounds for nullification could be expanded while avoiding the word “divorce”.

Father Jerome Secillano of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, meanwhile, said divorce contravenes the Church’s teachings on marriage and would ultimately destroy families.

“We will see more couples separating. We will see children who don’t know where to go,” he told AFP.

He also argued the number of domestic abuse victims would “double” as divorced men would “have another chance to be violent again” to new spouses.

Ms Kapunan called the existing laws “very complicated, very expensive, very anti-woman and anti-child”.

Despite the opposition and failed previous attempts to legalise divorce, Ms Anuran remains determined. “No one’s backing down. Win or lose, the fight will continue,” she said. AFP