As I was thinking of what to type for my blog post on divorce today, my thoughts suddenly stood at a crossroads. It asked, “What is the difference between annulment and divorce anyway?” Since Philippines already states the former as part of its laws, what is the use of the latter then? So when I got home, I immediately researched what the dissimilarities of annulment and divorce are in the Philippines. Unexpectedly, another one came up to toggle the picture even more—legal separation. It was only when I stumbled upon a law blog of a Filipino, Atty. Fred Pamaos that I got a cleared picture of what those three terms meant.
Atty. Pamaos is a cum laude graduate from the University of the Philippines with degrees in Bachelor of Political Science and Bachelor of Laws. He formerly practiced at the Picazo Buyco Tan Fider and Santos Law Offices, and Castillo Laman Tan Panteleon and San Jose Law Offices. Currently, he is a Supervising Lawyer at UP’s College of Law Office of Legal Aid.
He started off his question-and-answer format article on “Annulment, Divorce and Legal Separation in the Philippines” with, “divorce is not allowed in the Philippines,” which holds true until if the Congress decides to pass the bill. Filipinos are covered by the “nationality principle” so wherever they get married, like America for instance that allows divorce, they are prohibited from such a law. Philippine Law governs Filipinos wherever they may be.
Although Philippines currently does not allow divorce (which we already know as declaring marriage legally null due to irreparable grounds), it allows annulment and legal separation on certain grounds. Annulment is different from “declaration of nullity” as the former applies to a marriage that is still considered valid, while the grounds for nullity apply “to marriages that are invalid from the very beginning. In other words, it was never valid in the first place.”
To sift it some more and clear up the confusing picture, here are the grounds for annulment of marriage:
- Lack of parental consent in certain cases. If a party beyond minority married without the consent of the parents/guardian.
- Insanity. A marriage may be annulled if, at the time of marriage, a spouse was of disordered mind.
- Fraud. The consent of either spouse was gotten through fraud.
- Forece, intimidation or undue influence.
- Impotence. During marriage, either spouse was physically incapable of consummating the marriage with the other and appears to be incurable. Note, impotence is different from infertility.
- Sexually transmitted infection that is found to be serious and incurable.
No comments:
Post a Comment