The Philippines is the only country ( and also Vatican) in the world where divorce is not legal. Except for Muslim Filipinos, which have its own marriage law.
Any Filipino couple who wants to be legally separated must resort to a costly and time-consuming annulment case. These procedure which means voiding the marriage that should not happen in the first place on different grounds and reasons can take years. The majority of separated couples, can't just bear the cost, time and purely technical grounds of these legal route to be able for them to marry again legally. Worst, they are prone to adultery cases which is a criminal case in the Philippines because many just live separately and live with another partner. They start again a new family without marrying because the State will see it as illegal.
Many divorce law has already pass in Congress but all faced a strong opposition from old-timer politicians and Catholic Church which 80% of Filipinos belong.
Urbanization and woman empowerment in this modern society causes the rising Filipinos who want divorce because they are not tied to rural settings of traditional lifestyle and pressure from extended family to keep, at all cost their marriage.
Filipinos values family, and the Constitution on principle, guarantee to protect this basic unit of society. But, the rising married couples who want legal separation must be address. Until, Filipinos voted for a younger generation of lawmakers which is more open-minded the country can have divorce law or at least be creative enough to make annulment cases much more affordable and not time-consuming.
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