Members of the House of Representatives gathered for a group picture on Wednesday, March 23, 2023 as they adjourned their session. (FIle photo from the House Facebook page)
MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives was lambasted Thursday by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines for the former’s approval of absolute divorce in the country.
Fr. Jerome Secillano, CBCP spokesperson claimed in a message to inquirer.net that “It’s a betrayal of their constitutional mandate to uphold marriage and the family.”
He added that “in essence, divorce is anti-family, anti-marriage and anti-children.”
The divorce bill was finally approved on Wednesday by the chamber on third and final reading.
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The CBCP spokesperson noted that the House always passed it in previous congresses.
“It’s not surprising anymore,” he chided the lawmakers.
The last time a House divorce bill hurdled final reading was in the 17th Congress, during the first half of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.
However, the measure languished in the Senate.
The current Senate version of the divorce bill, filed by Senators Risa Hontiveros, Raffy Tulfo, Robin Padilla, Pia Cayetano and Imee Marcos, has already been approved at the committee level last year.
Secillano insisted that once divorce becomes a law, it will just apply to civil marriages and not to rites done by the Catholic Church.
Apart from the Vatican, the Philippines is the only country in the world that has not legalized divorce.