Davao del Norte 1st District Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez urged the House leadership under Speaker Lord Allan Velasco on Saturday, Nov. 21, to include the divorce measure in its priority list.
“I hope that the present leadership will approve it already,” he said in a text message when asked if he would urge the House Committee on Rules, chaired by House Majority Leader and Leyte 1st District Rep. Martin Romualdez, to calendar the measure for plenary debates and approval.
On February this year, the House Committee on Population and Family Relations approved the measure seeking to legalize absolute divorce in the country.
Alvarez said he will “officially” ask Velasco to include the proposed Absolute Divorce Act in the Lower Chamber’s list of legislative priorities.
He said he will try to push for the passage of the measure this year.
“It is better to be hopeful,” said the former Speaker who authored HB No.2263, the proposed Act instituting absolute divorce and dissolution of marriage in the Philippines.
He recalled that during the 17th Congress, the measure hurdled the House of Representatives on third and final reading. It was transmitted to the Senate, but it did not succeed there, Alvarez said.
"This option, as a remedy of last resort, should be simple, affordable, and accessible to persons who find themselves in an irredeemably toxic relationship which harms the husband, the wife, their children, and destroys the peace, harmony, and health of the family,” Alvarez said.