Lagman: Divorce law will close gender gap in the country

The passage of House Bill 9349 or the Absolute Divorce Bill into law will help bridge the gender gap in the country, according to Albay lawmaker Edcel Lagman on Friday.

Lagman, one of the authors of the said bill, made the statement in response to the 2024 World Economic Forum Report on Global Gender Gap Index where the Philippines ranked in 25th place. 

The same report also stated that there are restricted rights in the country when it comes to the right to divorce, which the report identified as one of the complementary targets and contextual indicators of gender gap.

In addition, the report said that around 6% of women aged 15 to 49 have unmet family planning needs and that the country has unequal rights when it comes to reproductive autonomy.

“The enactment of the absolute divorce law will enable the Philippines to improve its ranking in the Global Gender Gap Report. The pro-woman measure will bridge the gender gap and achieve gender parity as abused and tormented wives are given the opportunity to regain their freedom, self-respect, agency and happiness together with the right to alimony, primary custody of their children and the latter’s support from the offending party, and remarry,” Lagman said in a statement.

“When the Global Gender Gap Report was launched in 2006, the Philippines ranked sixth. The country has slipped to 25th out of 146 nations in the latest report,” added Lagman.

Lagman, however, said freedom from a toxic marriage is the "ultimate benefit" of the Divorce bill.

“However, getting married again is the least of the aggrieved wives’ prayers as they principally want to be liberated from a long entombed marriage,” explained the lawmaker.

The House has already approved the proposed Absolute Divorce bill, which explicitly provides for domestic violence and marital infidelity as grounds for divorce which are not stated in the Family Code, on third and final reading last month.
The bill’s counterpart measure in the Senate, however, has only been approved at the committee level back in September 2023 and has not moved since. 

Advocates of the Divorce measure have also decried the insufficiency of the Family Code in addressing their abusive marriages.

A Social Weather Stations survey also showed that at least 50% of Filipinos are in favor of having a Divorce law. —VAL, GMA Integrated News