Anti-Divorce References:

1987 Constitution
Article XV. The Family
o Section 1. The State recognizes the Filipino family as the foundation of
the nation. Accordingly, it shall strengthen its solidarity and actively
promote its total development.
o Section 2. Marriage, as an inviolable social institution, is the foundation
of the family and shall be protected by the State.
o Section 3. The State shall defend:
(2) The right of children to assistance, including proper care and
nutrition, and special protection from all forms of neglect, abuse,
cruelty, exploitation and other conditions prejudicial to their
development;
Article II
o Section 12. The State recognizes the sanctity of family life and shall
protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social
institution. It shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of
the unborn from conception. The natural and primary right and duty of
parents in the rearing of the youth for civic efficiency and the
development of moral character shall receive the support of the
Government.
Family Code
Article 1. Marriage is a special contract of permanent union between a man
and a woman entered into in accordance with law for the establishment of
conjugal and family life. It is the foundation of the family and an inviolable
social institution whose nature, consequences, and incidents are governed by
law and not subject to stipulation, except that marriage settlements may fix
the property relations during the marriage within the limits provided by this
Code.
Art. 35. The following marriages shall be void from the beginning:
o (1) Those contracted by any party below eighteen years of age even
with the consent of parents or guardians;
o (2) Those solemnized by any person not legally authorized to perform
marriages unless such marriages were contracted with either or both
parties believing in good faith that the solemnizing officer had the legal
authority to do so;
o (3) Those solemnized without license, except those covered the
preceding Chapter;
o (4) Those bigamous or polygamous marriages not failing under Article
41;
o (5) Those contracted through mistake of one contracting party as to
the identity of the other; and
o (6) Those subsequent marriages that are void under Article 53.
Art. 36. A marriage contracted by any party who, at the time of the
celebration, was psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential
marital obligations of marriage, shall likewise be void even if such incapacity
becomes manifest only after its solemnization.

Art. 45. A marriage may be annulled for any of the following causes, existing
at the time of the marriage:
o (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;
o (2) That either party was of unsound mind, unless such party after
coming to reason, freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife;
o (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;
o (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;
o (5) That either party was physically incapable of consummating the
marriage with the other, and such incapacity continues and appears to
be incurable; or
o (6) That either party was afflicted with a sexually-transmissible disease
found to be serious and appears to be incurable.
Art. 55. A petition for legal separation may be filed on any of the following
grounds:
o (1) Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed
against the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner;
o (2) Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to
change religious or political affiliation;
o (3) Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a
common child, or a child of the petitioner, to engage in prostitution, or
connivance in such corruption or inducement;
o (4) Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more
than six years, even if pardoned;
o (5) Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism of the respondent;
o (6) Lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent;
o (7) Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage,
whether in the Philippines or abroad;
o (8) Sexual infidelity or perversion;
o (9) Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner; or
o (10) Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause
for more than one year.
Art. 63. The decree of legal separation shall have the following effects:
o (1) The spouses shall be entitled to live separately from each other,
but the marriage bonds shall not be severed;
o (2) The absolute community or the conjugal partnership shall be
dissolved and liquidated but the offending spouse shall have no right
to any share of the net profits earned by the absolute community or

o
o

the conjugal partnership, which shall be forfeited in accordance with

the provisions of Article 43(2);
(3) The custody of the minor children shall be awarded to the innocent
spouse, subject to the provisions of Article 213 of this Code; and
(4) The offending spouse shall be disqualified from inheriting from the
innocent spouse by intestate succession. Moreover, provisions in favor
of the offending spouse made in the will of the innocent spouse shall
be revoked by operation of law.

Art. 68. The husband and wife are obliged to live together, observe mutual
love, respect and fidelity, and render mutual help and support.
Art. 70. The spouses are jointly responsible for the support of the family. The
expenses for such support and other conjugal obligations shall be paid from
the community property and, in the absence thereof, from the income or
fruits of their separate properties. In case of insufficiency or absence of said
income or fruits, such obligations shall be satisfied from the separate
properties.
Art. 220. The parents and those exercising parental authority shall have with
the respect to their unemancipated children on wards the following rights and
duties:
o (1) To keep them in their company, to support, educate and instruct
them by right precept and good example, and to provide for their
upbringing in keeping with their means;
o (3) To provide them with moral and spiritual guidance, inculcate in
them honesty, integrity, self-discipline, self-reliance, industry and thrift,
stimulate their interest in civic affairs, and inspire in them compliance
with the duties of citizenship;

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 16(3)
o The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is
entitled to protection by society and the State.
Cases

Bolos vs. Bolos (G.R. No. 186400, October 20, 2010)

o This Court is not unmindful of the constitutional policy to protect and
strengthen the family as the basic autonomous social institution and
marriage as the foundation of the family.
o Our family law is based on the policy that marriage is not a mere
contract, but a social institution in which the State is vitally interested.
The State finds no stronger anchor than on good, solid and happy
families. The break up of families weakens our social and moral fabric
and, hence, their preservation is not the concern alone of the family
members (citing Azcueta v. Republic, G.R. No. 180668, May 26, 2009,
588 SCRA 196, 205; Ancheta v. Ancheta, G.R. No. 145370, March 4,
2004, 424 SCRA 725, 740; Tuason v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 116607,
April 10, 1996, 326 SCRA 169, 180-181).

Paz vs. Paz (G.R. No. 166579, February 18, 2010, 613 SCRA 195)
o The Constitution sets out a policy of protecting and strengthening the
family as the basic social institution and marriage as the foundation of
the family. Marriage, as an inviolable institution protected by the State,
cannot be dissolved at the whim of the parties. In petitions for the
declaration of nullity of marriage, the burden of proof to show the
nullity of marriage lies on the plaintiff. Any doubt should be resolved in
favor of the existence and continuation of the marriage and against its
dissolution and nullity (citing Republic v. Cabantug-Baguio, G.R. No.
171042, June 30, 2008, 556 SCRA 711).
Ilusorio vs. Ilusorio-Bildner (G.R. Nos. 139789 & 139808, July 19, 2001,
361 SCRA 427)
o The law provides that the husband and the wife are obliged to live
together, observe mutual love, respect and fidelity (Art 68, Family
Code). The sanction therefor is the "spontaneous, mutual affection
between husband and wife and not any legal mandate or court order"
to enforce consortium. We defined empathy as a shared feeling
between husband and wife experienced not only by having
spontaneous sexual intimacy but a deep sense of spiritual communion.
Marital union is a two-way process. Marriage is definitely for two loving
adults who view the relationship with "amor gignit amorem" respect,
sacrifice and a continuing commitment to togetherness, conscious of
its value as a sublime social institution.
Santos vs. CA (G.R. No. 112019, January 4, 1995, 240 SCRA 20)
o

Marriage is not an adventure but a lifetime commitment. We should

continue to be reminded that innate in our society, then enshrined in
our Civil Code, and even now still indelible in Article 1 of the Family
Code, is that
Art. 1. Marriage is a special contract of permanent
union between a man a woman entered into in accordance with
law for the establishment of conjugal and family life. It is
the foundation of the family and an inviolable social
institution whose nature, consequences, and incidents are
governed by law and not subject to stipulation, except that
marriage settlements may fix the property relations during the
marriage within the limits provided by this Code. (Emphasis
supplied.)
Our Constitution is no less emphatic:
Sec. 1. The State recognizes the Filipino family as the foundation
of the nation. Accordingly, it shall strengthen its solidarity and
actively promote its total development.
Sec. 2. Marriage, as an inviolable social institution, is the
foundation of the family and shall be protected by the State.
(Article XV, 1987 Constitution).
The above provisions express so well and so distinctly the basic
nucleus of our laws on marriage and the family, and they are doubt the
tenets we still hold on to.

Perido vs. Perido (G.R. No. L-28248, March 12, 1975, 63 SCRA 97)
o The basis of human society throughout the civilized world is that of
marriage. Marriage is not only a civil contract, but it is a new relation,
an institution in the maintenance of which the public is deeply
interested.

Goitia vs. Campos Rueda (G.R. No. 11263, November 2, 1916, 35 Phil. 252)
o

Marriage is something more than a mere contract. It is a new relation,

the rights, duties, and obligations of which rest not upon the
agreement of the parties but upon the general law which defines and
prescribes those rights, duties, and obligations. Marriage is an
institution, in the maintenance of which in its purity the public is
deeply interested. It is a relation for life and the parties cannot
terminate it at any shorter period by virtue of any contract they may
make. The reciprocal rights arising from this relation, so long as it
continues, are such as the law determines from time to time, and none
other. When the legal existence of the parties is merged into one by
marriage, the new relation is regulated and controlled by the state or
government upon principles of public policy for the benefit of society
as well as the parties. And when the object of a marriage is defeated
by rendering its continuance intolerable to one of the parties and
productive of no possible good to the community, relief in some way
should be obtainable.

Blacks Law Dictionary (8th edition)

Annulment
o The act of nullifying or making void
o A judicial or ecclesiastical declaration that a marriage is void
o An annulment establishes that the marital status never existed (it
renders a marriage void from the beginning)
o Divorce or dissolution of marriage terminates the marriage as of the
date of the judgment of dissolution.

Divorce
o The legal dissolution of a marriage by a court
o When used without qualification, the term divorce imports a dissolution
of the marriage relation between husband and wife, that is, a complete
severance of the tie by which the parties were united. However, in its
common and wider use, the term includes the dissolution of a valid
marriage, a formed separation of married persons, and the annulment
of a marriage void from the beginning.

Legal Separation
o An arrangement whereby a husband and wifes live apart from each
other while remaining married, either by mutual consent (often in a
written agreement) or by judicial decree; the act of carrying out such
an arrangement.

The status of a husband and wifes having begun such an

arrangement, or the judgment or contract that brought about the
arrangement.

News

PHL now only nation in the world without divorce; Malta gives in
(GMA News Online, May 29, 2011,
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/222013/world/phl-now-only-nation-in-the-worldwithout-divorce-malta-gives-in)
o

The Mediterranean island of 400,000 people was one of only two

countries not to allow divorce the other being the Philippines. The last
country to legalise divorce was Chile way back in 2004.