EXPLAINER | Supreme Court simplifies recognition of foreign divorce
Anika Lorelle T. Uy
For Filipinos, marriage is seen as a lifelong commitment not only in the name of love, but in the eyes of the law. Since 1950, the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country, has prohibited absolute divorce under Republic Act No. 386 or the Civil Code, the only available alternatives in the country being limited to legal separation and annulment. However, there is one exception for a Filipino to be capable of dissolving their marriage: filing a divorce abroad.
Foreign divorce is permitted by the Supreme Court of the Philippines (SC), provided that the Filipino spouse is married to a foreign citizen whose home country legally recognizes divorce. The process of availing it has come a long way since the mid-2000s, and has been recently met with changes in legal requirements.
Streamlining the divorce process overseas
During late September of 2024, the SC stated that divorces obtained abroad are not mandated to undergo judicial proceedings to be recognized in Philippine courts, as stated by Associate Justice Japar Dimaampao. This was cited in the case of divorce by mutual agreement by petitioners Ruby Cuevas Ng and Akihiro Sono, a Japanese national. This was supported by the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines, who issued a Divorce Certificate as evidence before court.
Ng filed for judicial recognition for foreign divorce and capacity to remarry before the Regional Trial Court (RTC), who granted her petition. The Office of the Solicitor General intercepted this decision, claiming foreign courts must issue a divorce decree for it to be recognized in the Philippines.
The SC countered this claim with regard to Article 26, paragraph 2 of Family Code, which “confers jurisdiction on Philippine courts to extend the effect of a foreign divorce decree to a Filipino spouse without undergoing trial to determine the validity of the dissolution of the marriage,” meaning that the effects of divorce need not necessitate judicial proceedings from a foreign court, leaving the authority to local courts to recognize its validity.
However, Ng failed to submit an authenticated record of the existing Japanese law on divorce, which must be validated by official publication or the documents’ legal custodian. The Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) keeps a compilation of foreign divorce laws, but only for preliminary reference. Thus, Ng’s case became grounds for noncompliance with Rule 132, Sections 24 and 25 of the Revised Rules on Evidence, and her case got remanded to RTC, allowing her to return with proper evidence.
Freedom for Filipino divorcees
The Ng-Sono case is not an isolated one; the past cases of Cipriano Orbecido and the Marelyn Manalo helped streamline the process of availing foreign divorce, and its main basis was the Family Code, or Executive Order No. 209, signed into law by former President Corazon Aquino.
This landmark legislation covers family relations and legal customs on marriage in the Philippines, such as share of property between spouses, parental authority, and grounds for legal separation and annulment. The entirety of Article 26 in particular describes a Filipino citizen’s right to divorce if validly obtained abroad with an alien spouse.
Yet, even years after the law was in effect, there have been no cases of foreign divorce that were tried and validated by the SC. This meant that post-divorce, foreign partners were allowed to remarry while the Filipino spouse remained legally bound to the marriage, as it had not been dissolved on their part.
It wasn’t until 2005 when the Philippines had its first foreign divorce case under Cipriano Orbecido, a Filipino citizen who married a foreigner and was seeking recognition of divorce before the RTC of Molave, Zamboanga del Sur. Thus began the review and interpretation of Article 26 of the Family Code, which states: “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, 37, and 38.”
Acknowledging his wife as a naturalized American citizen, the judiciary declared the applicability of the Family Code and ruled in favor of Orbecido, stating that a Filipino can remarry if the foreign spouse initiates and obtains a valid divorce in their home country, which his wife did, thus, he was granted the capacity to remarry.
Come 2018 was the Marelyn Manalo case, where the SC shifted to more flexible requirements, allowing either party to initiate the divorce, which gave more freedom to Filipino spouses. Nonetheless, the SC required the divorce decree to still be recognized by a foreign court before undergoing trial in the Philippines.
Now, Filipino petitioners can seek recognition of foreign divorce in the Philippines without acquiring a foreign court-issued decree, regardless if the divorce was obtained through administrative or legal means or by mutual agreement, such as the case of Ng. The requirements that remain is proving the fact of marriage via official marriage certificate, whether celebrated locally or overseas, alongside attested evidence of the foreign law that recognizes divorce.
The history of these cases created a streamlined foreign divorce process, which allows for Filipino spouses to obtain legal clarity, granting rights to remarry, revoke claims to inheritance and properties of the ex-spouse, and officially update their marital status to avoid issues such as charges of bigamy if seen as married under Philippine law. Moreover, the exclusion of presenting foreign divorce decrees enables Filipinos to experience a less burdensome procedure to prove the divorce validity.
The fate of divorce legalization in the Philippines
Filipinos have long had access to foreign divorce, and its accessibility is progressing. This begs the question: what becomes of divorce within country borders?
Efforts have been made to legalize divorce in the country over the years despite the oppositional uproar from Filipino Catholics and conservatives. Numerous bills have been proposed, such as the Dissolution of Marriage Act in 2022, with Senator Risa Hontiveros as its principal author, but none of these bills have been approved and ratified.
Yet, that has never stopped legislators from continuously trying. This year, another divorce bill has been read in the House of Representatives, authored by Albay Representative Edcel Lagman, titled “An Act Reinstituting Absolute Divorce as an Alternative Mode for the Dissolution of Marriage.” The bill states that grounds for divorce fall under marital infidelity and domestic violence, but not for a no-fault divorce.
The bill passed its final reading in the lower chamber on May 22, and has been sent to the Senate via letter from House Secretary Reginald S. Velasco to Senate President Francis Escudero on June 10.