Bacolod Bishop Paticio Buzon in his homily on Sunday called the House of Representative passage of the House Bill 9349, or the proposed Absolute Divorce Act, a tragic development since the bill seriously threatens the family, the foundation of society, and defies the law of God.
“A divorce law would affect all marriages since it would change the legal structure of marriage to a breakable contract. For all the good intentions of its proponents, the bill will only create greater damage to the family and to society,” he said.
“We hope and pray that our senators will be more enlightened and God-fearing. The family is holy. It is the sacrament of the Trinity,” Buzon said.
Only three Negros Occidental representatives voted against the divorce bill – Alfredo Marañon III of the 2nd District, Emilio Yulo III – 5th District and Mercedes Alvarez – 6th District.
Alvarez said she voted against the bill because the grounds for irreconcilable differences are too broad and encompassing, it will make it too easy for a couple to file for divorce.
Marañon earlier said he voted against the bill because a priest at a mass he attended reminded the congregation that the Bible says “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”
Yulo said he voted against the bill “because in any successful divorce proceedings those who are affected are the children. I’m not prepared to see children suffering from the failure of their parents to fight for their marriage”.
“Our 106 House Representatives who voted against the Absolute Divorce Bill have my greatest respect and admiration for their ‘no’ votes,” San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza said Monday.
Though they may have different reasons for their votes and did not get the required number to defeat the bill, their significant number made a strong collective statement in defense of the essential properties of marriage based on our 1987 Constitution: indissolubility and unity and its inherent consequence, which is permanence — so important and necessary in the normal growth of children that may result from this union, Alminaza said.
“I am sure like us who are against divorce, we recognize that there are people who are caught in an irreparably broken union. But for us the remedy is not divorce but the improvement of the Family Code of the Philippines so that it contains all the grounds for the declaration of nullity of a fiction of marriage, which was void from the beginning”, he said.
The remedy is not divorce but the improvement the Family Code to include all known grounds for the declaration of nullity of a marriage which was void from the beginning, Buzon also said.*