The enactment of a law on absolute divorce and dissolution of marriage is not prohibited by the constitutional tenets on marriage as a social institution and as the foundation of the family.

No less than the Commissioners of the 1986 Constitutional Commission, which drafted the 1987 Constitution, were unanimous that the Congress has the authority to pass a divorce law under the present Charter.

Records of the proceedings of the Constitutional Commission document that Commissioners Fr. Joaquin Bernas, Chito Gascon, Jose Bengzon and Maria Teresa Nieva concurred that despite the adoption of these principles on marriage and family life in the 1987 Constitution, the legislature is not foreclosed from instituting absolute divorce.

No Commissioner registered a dissenting view on this issue.

In fact, there is no provision in the 1987 Constitution which prohibits divorce.

Similar or identical provisions on marriage and family life are found in the constitutions of countries which allow absolute divorce like Ireland, Columbia, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, El Salvador, Portugal, Brazil, Poland, France, Saudi Arabia, the Russian Federation and Cuba, among others.

Even Canon Law authorizes canonical divorces or those which are euphemistically called “nullification of marriage”.

The “inviolability” of marriage is a prescribed standard or norm but it is not a proscription of divorce in limited and exceptional cases.

For example, while the constitution of Columbia provides that the “family’s honor, dignity, and intimacy are inviolable”, 13 years ago absolute divorce was legislated in Columbia, including “notarized divorce” where mutual consent divorce before a notary is allowed.

By analogy, while the right of suffrage is considered inviolable and sacrosanct, it can be denied to a citizen in warranted circumstances.

No rule or doctrine is cast in stone as to be immune from exceptions.

Unfortunately, what God has put together, couples in irremediably dysfunctional marriages put asunder because of human frailty and mortal limitations.

While the State protects and preserves marriages, it is also duty  bound to extend protection to spouses of shattered marriages beyond repair by allowing them to secure absolute divorce and save their children from the agony and distress of being exposed to their interminable strife.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN