PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III does not favor the divorce bill being pushed in the Congress, saying that a "divorce is a no-no” in his government.
The Gabriela party-list group has re-filed the divorce bill to give married couples another legal remedy aside from legal separation and annulment.
House Bill (HB) 1799 or "An Act Introducing Divorce in the Philippines" was first filed during the 13th Congress but only reached the committee level. It was re-filed during the 14th Congress but again failed to be passed.
In an interview with reporters at World Trade Center, Aquino said: “Definitely I cannot support something like you do in Las Vegas, like you can get married in the morning and you can get divorce in the afternoon.”
The President said he prefers legal separation over divorced but noted that both parties should be given freedom to remarry.
“I recognized that there have been unions that were wrong, and that no matter what interventions are done, no matter what counseling is done, they really can't stay together," he said.
The President also said he is doing his own research on how to help his sister, Kris Aquino, who sought for nullification of her marriage with basketball cager James Yap.
But he refused to comment further on the issue in honor of the court proceedings. (Jill Beltran/Sunnex)