Carvajal: Individual’s rights first

People who object to a divorce law for the Philippines are coming from two places. One is the Bible passage “What God has joined together let no man separate” in Mark 10:9. The other is the Constitution that upholds the sanctity of marriage and promotes a happy family life in Art. II, Section 12.

Those who oppose a divorce law by way of Mark 10:9 wrongly presume that all couples are joined by God in marriage and, therefore, cannot be separated. But how can a shotgun marriage, for instance, be a joining by God? It looks more like the sinful scheme of proud parents who want to avoid the shame of a daughter pregnant outside of marriage or of greedy parents, in the case of a marriage of convenience, who want to keep family property within controllable bounds.

God cannot possibly be a party to this violation of an individual’s rights. Nor can a priest’s blessing put a “made by God” stamp on a marriage of this kind. In such cases, a divorce law separates what God has definitely not joined together.

Moreover, a marriage on the rocks was really broken by the guilty party or parties. The divorce law does not break it up but only gives the victim or victims (like children who have rights) the opportunity to regain access to their rights as individuals to happiness, freedom from fear, abuse etc. as guaranteed by the Constitution and above all by God.

Incidentally, those who take pride in our being the only country other than the Vatican to have no divorce law forget that the latter has less than a thousand registered citizens, 85 percent of whom are celibate priests and nuns. The Vatican has no need of a divorce law. What it needs is a law allowing priests to marry.

Next, those opposed to divorce from a provision in our Constitution should note that Section 11 which upholds the dignity of the individual and protects his rights precedes Section 12 on the family. (All 30 articles of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights are about an individual’s rights.) That is because there is no marriage, no family, and no society without the individual. Thus, there is no happy marriage, no physically and mentally healthy family, there is no peaceful, just, and progressive society unless the individual’s rights are respected, protected and promoted first.

Societies exist for the individual and not vice versa. When people decide to marry or not to marry, they are simply exercising the right to choose their way towards a happy and fulfilling life. Most countries have a divorce law to protect the prior right of victims (children especially) in a failed marriage to the pursuit of happiness and to freedom from fear. They are right to judge that the individual’s rights come first.

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