What are your views on divorce and annulment here in the Philippines

According to our local laws annulment can only be applied if any of the following conditions are met: A marriage may be annulled for any of the following causes, existing at the time of the marriage: (1) That the party in whose behalf it is sought to have the marriage annulled was eighteen years of age or over but below twenty-one, and the marriage was solemnized without the consent of the parents, guardian or person having substitute parental authority over the party, in that order, unless after attaining the age of twenty-one, such party freely cohabited with the other and both lived together as husband and wife; (2) That either party was of unsound mind, unless such party after coming to reason, freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife; (3) That the consent of either party was obtained by fraud, unless such party afterwards, with full knowledge of the facts constituting the fraud, freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife; (4) That the consent of either party was obtained by force, intimidation or undue influence, unless the same having disappeared or ceased, such party thereafter freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife; (5) That either party was physically incapable of consummating the marriage with the other, and such incapacity continues and appears to be incurable; or (6) That either party was afflicted with a sexually-transmissible disease found to be serious and appears to be incurable. (85a) I think we just need to have a much more enforced laws and and expanded one for annulment. I think the conditions stated above is not enough already because cases of violence against women is increasing already.

there are no divorce in the Philippines but there is annulment. this is easy of you have money (as there are a lot of corruption in our country), and you have to make sure both parties are willing to sign this annulment. if one of the party is against then there will never be an annulment. if an annulment can push through she can never remarry in the Philippines, for that is what annulment is all about. you can be separated legally but you can no longer remarry. but i guess you can still marry as long as you are not going to get married in the Philippines. i will show you a link that can help you with this. http://www.filipinawives.com/soannulment.htm for me i think since we have annulment already why not push the divorse. after all all the couples who are filling for annulment means they no longer love each other. even we are raised with love and values of marriage it is no longer healthy for a couple to stay married if they keep on fighting and no longer do what they vowed during their wedding. i am a guy and my wife and we pity couples who no longer love each other and cant be free to love again just because of rules and laws like this. just my opinion.

what i know about violence with women and their children is, they are criminal acts and punishable by a republic act, a law that gives security for the women, wives and cohabiting women. physical, emotional and economical abuses are some of the acts that is punishable by the said law. but, as you have said, and one of the participants here, it is not one of the grounds for annulment. and i would like to agree that our law on annulment should be changed or give more teeth and strength. with the divorce, i also would like to agree that it is about time that our country should have allowed this.

i strongly disagree if divorce shall be implemented here in our country philippines since this process is against the will of God. One's married should not be separated by man or any means.

Hi anne..I'm not sure if being beaten in the U.S. would be grounds for annulment either. It definately would be grounds for divorce but annulment if I'm not mistaken can only be granted if the marriage was never consummated or if there is some very unusual circumstances. Is divorce and annulment two different things in your country? I don't care what the vows say, if a man beats you, you should leave, even if there are children. This is no way for a woman to live, in fear, and its not good for her children to see this behavior either. Lots of women return to the man or stay and never leave out of fear and this is a crime in itself. It is a bad problem here in the U.S. and there is never a happy ending.

well, if not happy anymore with the partner, why suffer? in this case, the girl should be given justice... the law should be changed since there are a lot of maltreated wives out there...

I didn't know that physical violence or homosexuality couldn't be considered as grounds for annulment. I just wondered now what was the grounds used by our friend who is undergoing an annulment now. He filed it because his wife is a lesbian and she admitted it. Hmmm I should ask him more about that. hehe. Anyway, let's go back to the point here. I agree with you that our laws should be amended because some laws are simply illogical now. How come physical abuse couldn't be a ground for annulment? So what do they expect that wives should just stay until they die in the killer hands of their husbands? Totally absurd! There are advantages and disadvantages which could be brought by legalizing divorce here. Having a divorce could mean that you may have a chance to live another life which is better and happier. Nonetheless, divorce could just make things easier for the couple to give up on their marriage without exerting any effort to save it. Now for the issue of abuse this is totally unacceptable. That is why we should push women empowerment. There are times that we don't realize the abuses that we get. It is simply not limited only to physical, it could also be verbal and other ways. Some wives when asked why aren't they working, their answer would be because their husbands wouldn't allow them to work. They have not thought that this is the beginning of an abuse. Not working should be your choice and not your partner's choice. They don't want their wives to work so that someday women will be very dependent on them an no matter what they do their spouses could not leave them because they are not financially capable to feed their family. It's like the premise of an abuse already. As fellow women we should help those who are in this situation and make them realize that with divorce or without divorce, they shouldn't allow anybody to abuse them.

I think those law should be change and included domestic violence as grounds for annulment because the victim is just the one who will suffer from it. I am agree with annulment and divorce because that would be the time that w\you will be set free from a life that is like hell. Annulments increases each year compare to the previous years because most of the men now beats there wife.

Marriage should be on the base of happiness ,if one fells nothing delighted with the other ,what is the sense to keep a unhappy marriage .everyone should have the right to choose their happiness. and the law should confirm that women could get away from family violence. though divorce is not a best way to society ,sometimes it is useful way .