Position Papers

House Bill No. 1799 – Introducing Divorce in the Philippines

With Malta’s recantation of its long-held Catholic views on marriage, all eyes now turn to the Philippines as the last nation, apart from the Vatican, that disallows divorce. At the onset, the institution of divorce to the Philippines appears to be a simple issue of whether or not it is now opportune for it to finally be introduced as an additional remedy to the dissolution of an intolerable union between a husband and wife.

The Separation

There must be a separation of church and state. History gave birth to this political and social landscape – pervading present-day societies around the world, including the Philippines.

Strictly historically speaking, it was during the regime of President Thomas Jefferson that the concept of the ‘separation of church and state’ is first recorded. Holding a Unitarian view of God, he made this move in order to guarantee the dominantly Trinitarian religious groups – specifically the Baptist groups – that his belief would not be pressed on citizens, that is, “there is a wall of separation that supposedly protects the Church from any undue meddling by the state.”