The buzzword among couples whose marriage is on the rocks is ANNULMENT OF MARRIAGE. For most couples, the ANNULMENT of their marriage is the control-alt-del keys of their lives. The reboot. The reshuffling of the deck. It is likewise the proverbial bridge that they have to cross to reach the promised haven of the life anew.
In pursuance of the second heaven (yes Virginia, there is “pangalawang gloria”), so many couples have resorted to this process that it would not have been totally inappropriate for them to have included the following phrase in their marital vows:
“Till death and ....annulment do us part”
But nobody can blame some of these couples for wanting to escape their domestic purgatory. Nobody could begrudge them for quitting on saving their dying marriage, for throwing in the towel, so to speak, for stopping to care at all and for wanting to start afresh. Not me. Nor should you.
Because nobody could feel the depths of despair of the battered housewife who is being brutally abused day in and day out by the husband whose idea of exercise is to probe the breaking point of his wife's flesh. No one could approximate the gnawing pain of the cuckolded husband whose jealousy is slowly eating away at his sanity. And how can one be judgmental when it is not one’s children who is exposed to the daily spectacle of marital shouting and shoving and strangling match.
But ANNULMENT is not the one all and be all of dissolution of marriage. In fact, on paper it requires the satisfaction of the most stringent of requirements before it is granted. It likewise entails the most cost. However, there are other alternative processes with which couples could unshackle the bonds of the loveless and decaying marriage but which the common lay men are not familiar with. If the immediately preceding paragraph has hit you like a brick in the head, then read on…
FIVE WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR LOVER (with apologies to SIMON & GARFUNKEL).
1. RECOGNITION OF FOREIGN DIVORCE
2. DECLARATION OF PRESUMPTIVE DEATH OF ONE'S SPOUSE
3. LEGAL SEPARATION
4. DECLARATION OF NULLITY OF MARRIAGE
5. ANNULMENT OF MARRIAGE
This humble blogger will try to dissect the different ways of legally dissolving your unhappy and hopeless marital bondage. I'll give you the road map, you choose the preferred escape route.
1. RECOGNITION OF FOREIGN DIVORCE.
Previously, a foreign divorce was not recognized in our jurisdiction. As it was then, a foreigner husband who had successfully obtained a divorce outside of the Philippines can freely remarry his next trophy wife while the Filipino spouse is still at the mercy of our laws being married to the spouse who is no longer married to her. It was really an an unfair and questionable rule. But dura lex sed lex. (the law is harsh but it is the law)
Then came this law:
Art. 26. All marriages solemnized outside the Philippines, in accordance with the laws in force in the country where they were solemnized, and valid there as such, shall also be valid in this country, except those prohibited under Articles 35 (1), (4), (5) and (6), 3637 and 38. (17a)
Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce is thereafter validly obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse shall have capacity to remarry under Philippine law. (As amended by Executive Order 227)
The rationale for the passage of the above quoted law is to equalize the right of the foreign spouse with that of the Filipino spouse. Now, the spurned Filipino spouse can remarry too. . All she has to do is to file a petition before the court for the recognition of the decree of divorce validly obtained abroad and pray that the court declare his or her capacity to remarry under our Philippine jurisdiction.
Earlier jurisprudence required the other spouse must be a foreigner at the time of marriage, he/she should have thereafter validly obtained a decree of divorce abroad and such decree grants him/her the right to remarry. Lately, the court has relaxed the rule and granted the same privilege even to filipino citizens who later became naturalized citizens of other countries.
Among the five alternatives, this is the easiest to prove and is almost always granted by the court. This is also the the most painless, least acrimonious and least contested process because at this stage the couple has already (or almost ) moved on with their own lives. This process is a mere formalization of the marital divide. Cost is likewise not substantial since no psychological examination is required.
Feel free to post your comments. For inquiries email me at cyberlawyer2020@yahoo.com
Next: Declaration of Presumptive Death. The Second Escape Route
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