Text: Xiao Peng's brilliant notes
Editor|Xiao Peng's brilliant notes
[Preface]
In modern society, freedom of marriage and love has long been advocated, but there is another country in Asia that has very strict rules on divorce, except for special circumstances such as widowhood, divorce is not allowed.
Although last year, the Philippines has made certain changes to this regulation, stipulating that if a divorce is to be made, there must be sufficient evidence of the cause of divorce and there is no possibility of reconciliation.
However, before that, couples have a 60-day cooling-off period for divorce, during which the judge needs to make a serious effort to promote reconciliation between the parties, and divorce is still very restrictive in this country.
Before this provision was introduced, the divorced person was in violation of the laws of the country, and was liable for it, or even imprisoned, and in addition to not being able to divorce, contraception between husband and wife was also not allowed.
The general reason for this provision is that the population and birth rate of the country are relatively low, so there is a need for laws to regulate people's thinking and consciousness in this regard, so as to promote normal social and economic development.
But for a country that does not allow divorce and contraception, this reason is completely untenable, because of the enormous demographic pressure.
So what's going on, which country is this, and why is there such a rule?
【Philippines where divorce is prohibited】
This Asian country is the Philippines, and the stars in the entertainment industry, Cecilia Cheung and Nicholas Tse got married in the Philippines in 2006, and the ban on divorce is the first marriage law established by the Philippines after independence.
In this country, divorce is against the law and divorce is allowed in very few cases, the first being bigamy and the second being when the spouses are married at the age of 18 when either of them is married.
The third is to have incurable diseases and diseases that can be transmitted through sexual activity, and finally there are psychological or character defects in both partners.
If you have any of these four situations, you can file a lawsuit for annulment of marriage through church or criminal proceedings, in fact, in our cognition, domestic violence and infidelity are enough to constitute sufficient grounds for divorce.
However, for the country of the Philippines, these reasons will not be accepted in the church or in the courts, and in the previous "Philippine Business Daily", there are some "extraordinary means" that can be used to divorce marriage.
The first is that if the couple has not had sex for 10 months, then their marriage is legally invalid, but it is only an invalid marriage, which does not mean that it is a divorce.
This system may not be so strenuous for the "rich" in the Philippines to divorce, but for ordinary people in this country, entering into marriage has really become a shackle for life.
In the extremely poor families of the Philippines, marriage is a mountain that cannot be removed for the women in the family.
In fact, as early as 1999, some people in the Philippines proposed to legalize divorce, but at that time this behavior was strongly opposed by the Catholic Church in the Philippines.
In 2007, a Philippine legislator proposed a bill to allow divorce, but this proposal was not taken seriously at that time, and this unreasonable provision also had a great impact on the lives of Filipino people.
Later, in 2018, the people's call for freedom of divorce was taken seriously, and in March, the Philippine House of Representatives announced that in the "Absolute Divorce Law", couples who have broken down their relationship can divorce and dissolve their marriage in accordance with legal procedures.
In the case of divorce, couples who cannot live together can apply for separation, but they cannot divorce, which means that they cannot remarry.
However, whether it is an application for divorce or an application for separation, the procedures to be followed are very complicated, and some procedures for applying for "invalid marriage" can even last for 1-10 years.
If your woman has sex with another man during this period before the separation is completed, she will be sentenced for "adultery".
The new rules on marriage introduced in 2008 were subsequently rejected by the Catholic Church, arguing that Philippine lawmakers should consider the impact of such hasty divorce on the healthy development of children in the family.
[The impact of the "wonderful" regulations]
Because divorce cannot be legalized, there are many families in the Philippines who are in a deformed relationship, and many families are unions without legal relationships.
Therefore, it is inevitable that there will be many disputes over custody and inheritance distribution, and because of the lack of divorce means, women have no effective means to resist when they are violently beaten in the family.
According to Philippine statistics, "wife beating" accounts for 72% of incidents, and the phenomenon of overseas workers in the Philippines has always been very common.
As a result, there are many marital problems, such as some Filipino maids returning from overseas work to find that their husbands are using their hard-earned money to find a lover or spend a lot of time drinking, and some Filipino seafarers are looking for fun overseas and leaving their families behind.
These phenomena have led to great marital problems in the Philippines, and as we mentioned earlier, there are some rich people who can rely on "money" to get a divorce.
There is indeed an example of a man who spent about $8,000 to hire a well-known lawyer and pay a certain amount of "professional fees" to the judge to have his marriage declared null and void.
Others spent 600,000 pesos, or almost $13,600, to hire a lawyer to get a psychiatrist to prove that they had depressed personality and antisocial tendencies, and then they were able to divorce their original partners.
The population of the Philippines exceeds 100 million, but only more than 10,000 couples successfully divorce every year.
Moreover, in addition to prohibiting divorce in the Philippines, contraception was not allowed before, and if it was violated, it would be the same as divorce, and you would have to face the consequences of going to jail.
Because we are a large country with a large population, we know very well how difficult it is to go to school or work under population pressure, and it is precisely for this reason that the mainland adopted family planning in the past.
In terms of population ratio, among Asian countries, the Philippines is also a country with a large population, and its population growth rate was even much more violent than ours in the early days.
The Philippines covers an area of only 29.97 square kilometers, but in 2022, its population has reached 110 million, which is about three times the density of our country.
In the period when the mainland had just opened up the second child, it was very common for the Philippines to have three or four children, and one of the main reasons behind these "ridiculous" regulations that we think can be talked about is the Catholicism practiced in the Philippines.
At the beginning, the Philippines was "bombarded" by the Spaniards with strong ships and cannons, and then carried out a hundred years of colonial rule, during this time, the Catholicism that Spain believed in was also deeply rooted in the hearts of Filipinos.
In later developments, "marital fidelity" was enshrined as the norm, and the concept of contraception as "murder" also deeply influenced Filipino behavior.
As a result, after the independence of the Philippines, the prohibition of divorce and contraception was written into law, and it has been strictly observed in the past few years.
Now because of the overpopulation of the Philippines, young people only talk about love and do not get married in order not to be shackled by marriage, and they cannot take contraceptive measures, and many children in some poor families have problems with their household registration.
The chaotic phenomenon has long been outdated in the development of modernization, so the reform of the marriage law in the Philippines is naturally imminent.
【Ireland's No Divorce Policy】
In addition to the Philippines, there is also a country that prohibits divorce, and was even considered a very romantic country for a time.
The famous literary masterpiece "Hamlet" was born in this land, and the people of this country also believe in Catholicism, so the "prohibition of divorce" is also written into the country's constitution.
At the time of the establishment of the Republic of Ireland, the Irish Constitution was very clear that no law could be made to dissolve marriage.
However, this regulation has now been abolished, and in a truly open society, everyone has the right to marry and divorce freely.
There are many countries in the world that do not allow abortion, such as South Korea, which used to not allow abortion, but now this rule has been abolished, and this country also allows the determination of the sex of the fetus.
There are many tragedies in some countries where divorce and contraception, and even abortion are not allowed, so opening up the right to freedom of divorce may be the real beginning of progress in modern society.
Links to previous issues
"Color TV King" Ni Runfeng: In the past, the national brand was proud of the crowd, and later cooperated with the United States to lose 4 billion
The five most popular cities on May Day! Before the holiday arrives, they are already overcrowded!
How strong is the mainland's navy? A US think tank predicts that China's navy may surpass the United States in 2030
Resources:
On March 16, 2018, People's Daily Online reported on "Is the Poor Shackles or the Rich "Privileges"? The Philippines Struggles to Legalize Divorce".
On March 25, 2015, Xinhuanet reported on "It is difficult for the Philippines to buy a divorce certificate, and there are many hidden dangers in prohibiting divorce".