Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman has called out the supposed "religious hypocrisy" of international Catholic lay ecclesial organization Couples for Christ (CFC) in its bid to stop the institutionalization of divorce in the Philippines. 

"Let us stop the religious hypocrisy being spread by the 'Couples for Christ' that because of human weakness the Philippines must not enact a divorce law but instead mend broken marriages," Lagman said in a statement Sunday, June 23. 

"It is precisely because of human frailties like marital abuse, infidelity, and abandonment, among other mortal weaknesses, that marriages are totally destroyed beyond repair," he underscored. 

The veteran congressman from Bicol is the main proponent of proposed Absolute Divorce Law, as embodied in House Bill (HB) No.9349. 

The House of Representatives has already approved the bill on third and final reading--albeit under controversial circumstances--last May 22. 

READ ME AGAIN: 

https://mb.com.ph/2024/5/24/paano-nangyari-yun-gomez-has-many-questions-on-absolute-divorce-bill-vote-change


Lagman insists that absolute divorce is a positive recourse that Filipinos in ruined marriages can turn to. 

"In considering giving the Sacrament of Communion to divorced and remarried Catholics, the exact words of Pope Francis in his footnote 351 in Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) are relevant: 'the Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak,'" he said. 

"Verily, absolute divorce rescues spouses who are embattled because of their human weaknesses and their suffering children from a house on fire," he stressed. 

Lagman said divorce "affords offended spouses, mostly the battered and tormented wives, to regain their freedom, self-esteem, agency, and happiness even as there is a judicial decree on the care, custody, and support of the children". 

"The sanctity of marriage does not institute an iron-clad union which fetters and imperils the humanity of spouses," he further said.