House Speaker Belmonte backs passage of divorce bill

As a House panel starts this week the deliberations on the measure introducing divorce in the country, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Monday said he personally supports the proposed legislation. "Let me just say that I myself is in favor of the bill. It is very difficult to let the people who cannot continue to live together do so. There are lots of social problems involved here," Belmonte told reporters. He added that he thinks divorced couples can still “nurture" their children even when they are living separately. Belmonte likewise said that divorce should be considered by Congress since annulment "is working in the country." "Parang divorce na rin e, di ba? Isa pa, annulment really leaves a puzzle on the status of children. Some of them have grown up and families of their own for some reason nag-anulled ang kanilang parents," he said. He said, however, that he expects House Bill 1799 introducing divorce in the country to be another "contentious" bill. Under HB 1799, couples who have been legally separated for two years can already file a petition for divorce. The measure lists psychological incapacity, irreconcilable differences and failure to comply with marital obligations as grounds for filing a divorce petition. Malta OKs divorce The House committee on revision of laws is set to start on Wednesday preliminary deliberations on HB 1799, days after the Mediterranean country of Malta approved divorce via a referendum vote. With the introduction of divorce in Malta, the Philippines remains to be the only Roman Catholic country outside the Vatican without a divorce legislation. Rev. Teodoro Bacani Jr., Manila auxiliary bishop, for his part said that legislators should consider the effect of divorce in other countries before pushing for the law legalizing it. "Tingnan muna natin, kung iyan ay nakakatulong sa mga bansang nagkaroon na ng divorce," he said in a separate interview on GMA News TV’s News To Go earlier in the day. — RSJ, GMA News