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Publisher’s Note
by CK May is the month of flowers not just in the Philippines but also here in Calgary. A lot of my neighbors have done their spring cleaning and unfortunately I cannot cope up with them. I remember that during this time of the year my husband, Hank gets busier day by day. He takes care [...]
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Gabriela: Abused wives need divorce law

abs-cbnNEWS.com

MANILA, Philippines – A national women’s rights organization said abused wives will benefit from a divorce bill filed by party-list lawmakers.

Gabriela said House Bill 1799, filed by its Representatives Luzviminda Ilagan and Emmie de Jesus, would help women who want to end a bad marriage.

“Nothing good could emanate from a marriage where there is no longer respect, love and affection between spouses. Most often, where marriage has taken the turn for the worse, it is the woman who suffers the brunt of it,” Gabriela health and services director Obeth Montes said in a statement Saturday.

She said that of the 294 cases of violence against women that Gabriela received from January to May this year, 204 involved domestic violence.

In reviving the bill, de Jesus earlier said divorce is a more affordable option than annulment, for which the ground of psychological incapacity is often difficult to prove.

“Wife battery is a reality we cannot turn a blind eye to,” Montes said. “When a woman is beaten by her husband, she must have the freedom to take her exit out of the marriage; but women at the present do not have this option because existing laws on legal separation and annulment fail miserably to address this reality.”

She said that many abused women want to end their marriages but find no help in existing laws.

“Thus, they find themselves suffering in silence putting up with the abuses,” Montes said. “The passage of a law that allows divorce is long overdue and necessary in a society where women remain marginalized and prone to many forms of domestic violence and abuses.”

All nations in the world — except the Philippines and Malta — allow divorce.