Philippines: Persons of the same sex may marry… but not get divorced

Rodrigo Duterte.

According to the Churches of Asia news agency (EDA), on October 26, 2016, the president of the Chamber of representatives, Pantaleon Alvarez, a relative of President Rodrigo Duterte, announced his intention of bringing forward a bill to legalize the unions of couples of the same sex.

In response, the representatives of the Catholic Church have stated that “homosexual marriage” is not only “contrary to divine law,” but also “to natural and human law.” Interviewed by EDA, Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of Lipa, south of Manila, declared that “in God’s eyes, a married couple is made up of one man and one woman.”

Before becoming president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte was the first mayro to have signed, in 2012, an “anti-discrimination” order with regards to the “minorities” in the city of Davao, on the island of Mindanao. The text was intended to “protect” the “LGBT community,” the “Moslems,” “persons with a handicap,” and “indigenous peoples,” and to impose sanctions in case of infractions.

During his presidential campaign, Rodrigo Duterte declared himself to be in favour of homosexual marriage but opposed to the legalization of divorce, still forbidden in the Philippines, a world-wide exception.

(Sources: kipa-apic.ch – Eglise d’Asie – DICI no. 345 dated Nov. 25 2016)

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