Lagman on divorce: It doesn’t infringe on Catholic Church doctrine

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman —Niño Jesus Orbeta

MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker said on Sunday that the absolute divorce bill “does not violate religious doctrines.”

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said this as the House of Representatives passed the bill on the third and final reading last March 22.

“By not prohibiting absolute divorce” the 1987 Constitution “recognizes that marriage is basically a social institution which is vulnerable to human frailties which destroy beyond repair marriages,” Representative Lagman claimed in a statement.

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“No less than the commissioners of the 1986 Constitutional Commission led by Fr. Joaquin Bernas had a unanimous consensus that Congress can enact an absolute divorce law,” Lagman said.

He added that Commissioners Fr. Joaquin Bernas, Chito Gascon, Jose Bengzon, and Maria Teresa Nieva’s proceedings of the 1986 Constitutional Commission (ConCom) document did not posit a dissenting.

“In fact, Muslim Filipinos who are covered by the Constitution are granted the right to divorce and remarry,” Lagman said.

“Moreover, the Family Code itself provides for relative divorce by judicially recognizing the separation of spouses from bed and board without the right to remarry,” the lawmaker added.

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“The ban on absolute divorce with the right to remarry spawns sinners, criminals, and crimes as separated spouses cohabit with other partners in adultery and concubinage and give birth to hundreds of thousands of illegitimate children,” he furthered.

Lagman likewise pointed out that those who married under Catholic rites but separate “do not commit sacrilege or sin.”

“Even the Catholic Church has its own canonical divorce, which is euphemistically called “dissolution of marriage” based on psychological incapacity,” he said.

“The fact that all Catholic countries worldwide, except the Philippine and the Vatican, have legalized divorce is a veritable testament that divorce does not infringe on the doctrine of the Catholic Church,” the lawmaker added.

He further reiterated that divorce “is not the monster which destroys marriages and families; it is the marital abuse, infidelity, and abandonment, among other mortal causes, which constitute the culprit.”