CBCP stands firm vs. divorce law, twits bills to decriminalize concubinage, adultery

(Updated 3:38 p.m.) Following a recently released survey showing 60 percent of Filipinos favoring the legalization of divorce, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines on Friday reiterated its firm stand against divorce.

CBCP president and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, who signed the statement, maintained a failed marriage is not an argument for divorce.

In a post on his social media accounts, Villegas said a failed marriage instead shows why only mature people should enter into marriage.

"The reasons thus far advanced for a divorce law fail to convince! Divorce, its advocates argue, is a solution to failed, if not oppressive and dehumanizing unions. The terms are powerful, but they invite visceral, rather than rational reactions," he said.

"A failed marriage is not an argument for divorce. It is rather proof of the necessity that only mature people enter into it. It proves the wisdom of the judiciousness of the Church in its conduct of pre-Cana and canonical inquiries," he added.

Villegas also lashed out against proposed measures to decriminalize adultery and concubinage.

The CBCP statement came days after pollster Social Weather Stations released the results of its survey showing 60 percent favor the legalization of divorce.

SWS, which conducted the survey last Nov. 27 to Dec. 1 but released the results Monday, also noted a rising trend favoring legalization of divorce.

"Public support for legalization of divorce for irreconcilably separated couples grew to a clear majority of 60 percent in December 2014, from a plurality of 50 percent in March 2011 and a split opinion of 43-44 percent in May 2005," according to the pollster.

It said that of the 60 percent of adult Filipinos who agreed with legalizing divorce, 38 percent "strongly" and 22 percent "somewhat" agreed.

Only 29 percent disagreed, eight percent "somewhat" and 21 percent "strongly." The balance were undecided on the matter.

The SWS had presented respondents with the statement, "Married couples who have already separated and cannot reconcile anymore should be allowed to divorce so that they can get legally married again."

Divorce law

The CBCP also contested a recent statement by a lawmaker that the Philippines [being] the only country without a divorce law may not be something to be proud of.

"To that, I hasten to add: Neither is it something for which we should be apologetic!" Villegas said in a March 25 statement posted on Church-run Radio Veritas' website Friday.

"That all countries of the world save ours have it is no compelling reason to have it. Ours is the only Constitution in the world that includes the non-juridical word 'love.' That is no reason to expunge it from our fundamental law!" he said.

Enough laws

Besides, he said there are sufficient provisions in the Family Code to address domestic violence – "specifically those that provide for the legal separation of the spouses, and, in some cases, even annulment of voidable marriages."

He also cited provisions of Republic Act No. 9262, the Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children act for the protection of women and their children.

If one spouse finds the other – or himself or herself – psychologically incapable of fulfilling the obligations of marriage, "the much-abused Art. 36 of the Family Code on psychological incapacity, ironically patterned after a similar canonical provision, is available."

"In other words, the supposed suffering that a spouse must bear owing to a failed marriage is more imagined than real, and comes only upon one who does not make use of the remedies already available under existing law," he said.

Villegas also said divorce allows an already married person to have another go at it, despite failing at the first.

"While one can reasonably test-drive a car and replace it with a better one should the test-drive prove unsatisfactory, it is plainly dehumanizing to both spouses to allow for a test-run, through a first marriage, and then grant the possibility of a replacement of spouses should the test fail. It is ironic that those most vocal in their support for divorce also hold themselves out as champions of human rights – and there can be no violation of human rights more egregious than to treat human persons the same way that you treat vehicles and appliances!" he said.

Deterrent, mockery

Villegas also said divorce is a deterrent to working on differences, adding marriage should be a work in progress.

Worse, he said divorce offers a dilemma of choosing between making of marriage a mockery and being arbitrary.

"A divorce law will either grant divorce on any ground – in which case marriage becomes a mockery – or on some grounds. But if it is granted on some grounds, irreconcilable differences, for example, who is to say that a person is more greatly challenged by irreconcilable differences than by the snoring of a spouse at night? Setting forth grounds for divorce is always tricky business, if not downright whimsical, because it assumes that one is in a position to grade degrees of misery or difficulty, and to say of some that they are worthy of the ‘relief’ of divorce while others are not," he said.

Effect on children

He also cited the effect of divorce on children as the separation of parents is traumatic on the children who must choose between mother and father when custodial rights are judicially resolved.

Visitation rights are a poor substitute for living with one’s parents, he said.

Divorce even compounds the trauma by allowing a total stranger – the new spouse – to the children to enter into their lives, he said.

"Society should be able to count on some promises as irrevocable. The promise of a physician to serve life and not to destroy it, the promise of a public official to serve and defend the Constitution, the promise of spouses to be faithful to each other, the promise of a priest to mirror to the world the care of the Good Shepherd – all these are promises that society has a right to rely on and that those who so promise have no right to renege on. If you cannot keep the promise, do not make it at all. Do not claim its privileges while refusing to own up to its demands!" he said.

Against decriminalization of adultery, concubinage too

Villegas also lashed out against proposed measures to decriminalize adultery and concubinage.

He said decriminalizing adultery and concubinage may send the message to Philippine society that now, "sexual liaisons and dalliances with persons other than with one’s spouse are now allowed."

He also said it could go against the anti-violence against women and children law.

"What can be more cruel for a spouse than to have the other sexually engaged with another and entering into intimate liaisons with another? How can it serve legal coherence for us to de-criminalize under one title what we consider criminal cruelty and violence under another?

What can be done though is to eliminate the discriminatory distinction between adultery and concubinage, for it has long been observed that limiting the applicability of adultery provisions only to women is in fact discriminatory," he said.

As for concubinage, the crime for which a husband with extra-marital affairs can be charged, he said it is more difficult to prove because its elements are “cohabitation with another under scandalous circumstances” while all it takes to commit adultery is one act of sexual intercourse with a man other than one’s husband.

Yet, he said it is this asymmetry that should be rectified.

"We have taken tremendous strides in the direction of protecting women and children. The proposal to pass a divorce law and to decriminalize adultery and concubinage go in the opposite direction. We should not lend support to such moral and juridical incoherence!" he said. — Joel Locsin/LBG, GMA News