IS THERE DIVORCE IN THE PHILIPPINES?
It is not completely true to say that there is no divorce in the Philippines. The Muslim Personal Code, in fact, allows for divorce under Sharia law between two Muslims, or when the husband is a Muslim.
There is even opinion to the effect that Art. 36 of the Family Code of the Philippines effectively operates as a divorce statute because it completely dissolves the marital union allowing the parties to remarry on the ground of psychological incapacity to annul the marriage “which may manifest itself during the marriage”.
The Family Code of the Philippines, however, allows for the recognition of a divorce when one of the spouses is a Filipino and the other is a foreigner ( Article 26, Family Code of the Philippines, Executive Order 209, Official Gazette of the Philippines) ). Since there is legally and effectively no divorce law in the Philippines, one view held that the recognition of divorce will be available only if the foreign spouse were the one to apply for it and would not be allowed if the Filipino spouse were to file the Petition for Recognition. The Supreme Court of the Philippines has since settled this gray area of the law in 2018 by allowing for the recognition of the divorce even when the petition is filed by the Filipino spouse ( Republic vs. Manalo, Cornell University Legal Information Institute . See also From Van Dorn to Manalo: An Analysis of the Court’s Evolving Doctrine in the Recognition of Foreign Divorce Decrees in Mixed Marriages by Amparita S. Sta. Maria, Ateneo de Manila University School of Law, Ateneo Law Journal )
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