EDITORIAL - Revisiting the divorce ban

The country will run out of lawyers if disbarment cases prosper for keeping mistresses. This was the reaction of Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to his possible disbarment amid reports about his extramarital affair. “Who doesn’t have a girlfriend?” he asked reporters.

His personal life became the subject of public discussions after his girlfriend figured in a verbal tussle with the partner of his fellow Davao congressman Antonio Floirendo Jr. The women’s fight allegedly triggered the filing of a graft complaint by Alvarez against Floirendo over the banana plantation in Mindanao operated by the Floirendo clan since the Marcos regime.

The Supreme Court has disbarred lawyers for keeping mistresses. In one such case in 2008, the SC ruled, “A member of the bar and an officer of the court is not only required to refrain from adulterous relationships or keeping a mistress but must also so behave himself as to avoid scandalizing the public by creating the impression that he is flouting those moral standards.”

Will the House Speaker be exempted from such censure? This case should prompt Congress to introduce legislation and redefine proper behavior not only among lawyers but also members of other professions as well as civil servants. Alvarez’s comment about the prevalence of extramarital affairs in the legal profession should inspire a revival of proposals to legalize divorce in the Philippines, the only country outside the Vatican city-state where it is still banned.

The proposal has been consistently resisted by the male-dominated Congress, and it’s not just due to pressure from the Catholic Church. The present setup favors male lawmakers who need not pay alimony when they dump their wives, and who need not commit to marriage when they cohabit with other women.

The hypocritical setup favors serial philanderers and wife beaters. While Filipino men can flaunt mistresses, there is still a stigma attached to women who suffer from domestic violence or have other reasons for wanting to get out of a failed marriage and commit to a new relationship. There is a so-called Catholic divorce, but only wealthy couples can afford it. Even Floirendo, for all his clan’s wealth, is merely estranged from his wife, Miss Universe 1973 Margie Moran.

Marriages fail, and couples should be given a chance to part ways or start a new life with other partners, without worrying about legal problems or social stigma. It’s time to revisit the ban on divorce.