The House plenary. (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

The House of Representatives has once again approved on third and final reading a bill that seeks to legalize divorce in the Philippines--but by a much closer margin this time. 

Garnening 126 affirmative votes during plenary session Wednesday afternoon, May 22 was House Bill (HB) No.9349, titled, "An Act reinstituting absolute divorce as an alternative mode for the dissolution of marriage".  

Entering negative votes were 109 House members--a relatively large opposition, but not enough to deny their pro-divorce colleagues. Another 20 solons abstained from the voting. 

Wednesday was the final day of the second regular session of the 19th Congress. The measure was approved on second reading a week earlier. 

The last time the lower chamber gave final approval to a pro-divorce bill was on March 19, 2018, during the 17th Congress. 

The previous pro-divorce measure was HB No.7303, titled "An Act instituting absolute divorce and dissolution of marriage in the Philippines". It received 134 affirmative votes against only 57 negative votes. 

However, the measure went nowhere in the Senate. 

Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman was the main sponsor and defender of HB No.9349 during the two-month long plenary debates. 

There was an usually long lull between the end of the nominal voting and the actual announcement of the results, with several congressmen seen approaching the rostrum and huddling there. 

The Philippines--a predominantly Catholic country--is among the last few nations in the world that does not recognize divorce. 

Despite this fact, Lagman had presented the measure as a "reinstitution" of divorce, as he had claimed that the social mechanism existed among Filipinos centuries ago before Catholicism was introduced to the country.  

The objective of HB No.9349 is to "reinstitute absolute divorce as an alternative mode for the dissolution of an irreparably broken or dysfunctional marriage under limited grounds and well-defined judicial procedures".  

It is intended to "save the children from the pain, stress, and agony consequent to their parents marital clashes or irreconcilable differences".  

The measure also seeks to "grant the divorced spouses the right to marry again for another chance to achieve marital bliss".  

It stipulates the grounds upon which a petition for absolute divorce may be filed, as follows:  

-The grounds for legal separation under Article 55 of the Family Code of the Philippines, as modified;

-The grounds for annulment of marriage under Article 45 of the Family Code of the Philippines, as modified;

-Separation of the spouses in fact for at least five (5) years at the time the petition for absolute divorce is filed, and reconcililation is highily improbable;

-Psychological incapacity as provided in Article 36 of the Family Code of the Philppines

-Irreconcilable differences; and

-Domestic or marital abuse to include acts under Republic Act (RA) No. 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004.