Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman (left), Senate President Francis "Chiz" Escudero (Facebook)

"Let us not legislate to deodorize."

Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman had this say in response to Senate President Francis "Chiz" Escudero's preference for a "more accessible and affordable" annulment of marriage over a law on absolute divorce.

Lagman was the principal author of the proposed Absolute Divorce Law, embodied in House Bill (HB) No.9349, which the House of Representatives recently approved on third and final reading.

"While we respect the position of Senate President Francis Escudero that instead of enacting an absolute divorce law, the annulment of marriage must be made more accessible and affordable, there is need however for the legislators and the public to understand the basic variances between annulment and divorce," the veteran solon from Albay said.

"We must legislate not to please or defer to the Church because we are a secular State which must independently enact reasonable and valid laws to afford remedies to distressed spouses, particularly abused wives, and liberate them and their children from a toxic and destructive conjugal and family environment," said Lagman, who also defended HB No.9349 during period of sponsorship and debates.

"Let us call divorce as divorce, a spade a spade. Let us not legislate to deodorize," added the independent minority congressman.

Lagman contended that it is not a valid reason to reject divorce "because it is anathema to the Catholic Church, which has accepted 'annulment' as it has its own canonical dissolution or annulment of marriage".

He explained that in annulment, there is a voidable marriage which will ripen into a valid marriage if not voided within five years from the discovery of the cause or reason for annulment.

In divorce, there is a valid marriage which has been dissipated and destroyed because of marital conflict, violence, abuse, infidelity and abandonment, among others, which render the marriage relationship unbearable and beyond reconciliation, Lagman said.

"Finally, the absolute divorce bill was approved in the House by a clear majority of votes. In a democracy, the majority prevails however small or huge the margin of victory is," he reiterated.

For absolute divorce to become a law, a counterpart measure to HB No.9349 must be passed in the Senate.