The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) hit the House of Representatives for passing the controversial absolute divorce bill on third and final reading.
“It’s a betrayal of their constitutional mandate to uphold marriage and the family,” said CBCP Spokesperson Father Jerome Secillano.
He added that the proposed law is anti-family and children.
“In essence, divorce is anti-family, anti-marriage and anti-children,” he added.
The CBCP official noted that the move at the lower house was not surprising since the bill also passed in previous Congress.
The big challenge now is the fate of the divorce measure at the Senate.
Under the proposed divorce law, physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner could be grounds for divorce.
The ball now is at the Senate on whether it will allow the divorce bill to pass.
“I hope the Senate sees the importance of the divorce bill… We don’t have to muddle religious issues with measures like this,” ACT Party-list Representative France Castro said.
Under the measure, divorced individuals would also be allowed to remarry.
The Philippines is among the two remaining countries in the world without a divorce law.
