The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) showed support for the re-establishment of divorce in the Philippines.
The CHR cited in a position paper the divorce bills filed in the 19th Congress including House Bills 78, 2593, 3843, 3885, and Senate Bills 147, 213, and 237.
"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that 'men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution," its legal framework read.
The commission also underlined that 'legal separation does not dissolve the marriage but allows a married couple to live separately considering the following grounds: repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct; physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to change religious or political respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner a common child, or a child of the petitioner.
It also includes drug addiction or habitual alcoholism; lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent; contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage; sexual infidelity or perversion; an attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner; and abandonment without justifiable cause.
The CHR has been recognizing the importance of Family in Filipino society, however, they are also balancing Filipino values with the realities and challenges faced by several families living in unhealthy relationships, detrimental to the health and well-being of its members.
