The Muslim Personal Code, however, allows for divorce for couples who got married through the Islamic rite under specific circumstances.
[2][3][4] Couples may also opt for legal separation, alternatively referred to as "relative divorce", although this process does not dissolve the marriage.
[7] Following the end of Axis occupation of the islands and the proclamation of the revival of the Philippine Commonwealth on October 23, 1944 by General Douglas MacArthur,[5] Act No.
[11] Current president Bongbong Marcos has said that he was open to legalizing divorce when he was still a candidate for the 2022 presidential election provided that the option is not made "easy".
[15] Several indigenous peoples' cultures recognize divorce in their marriages including the Ibaloi of Benguet,[16] Tagbanwa of Palawan, Gaddangs of Nueva Vizcaya, the Kankanaeys and Bontocs of the Cordilleras, and the Manobos and B'laans of Mindanao.
As the spouses' fourth way to separate, the bill enumerated limited grounds of the petition as defined by Loreto B. Acharon: Article 45 of the Family Code on annulment of marriage, spouses' de facto 5 years separation, gender-affirming surgery by a spouse or gender transition, psychological incapacity under Article 36 of the Family Code, irreconcilable differences, domestic, marital abuse or physical violence under Republic Act 9262, the Violence against women and Their Children Act of 2004 and moral pressure to change religious or political affiliation.
[25][26][27] The bill also provides validity recognition of a foreign divorce decree by either the alien or Filipino spouse with proper authentication by the Philippine Consul.
In June 2024, it published a manifesto stating "Marriages formed in love and mutual understanding can be happy, enduring, and fulfilling."
[38] The Iglesia ni Cristo prohibits its members from availing divorce, and maintains that couples in a troubled marriages should work on their differences.
[39][40] Bishop Modesto Villasanta of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) meanwhile expressed that his group is open to discuss the issue of divorce.
Villasanta states that it is "up to the Church on how they will teach their people the importance of marriage and not on barring its (a divorce bill's) approval".
[41] While divorce is largely not recognized by the state, marriages can be ended in the Philippines through annulment or declaring it null and void.