In the Philippines, costly marriage annulments spur calls to allow divorce

Veronica Bebero recalls the despair she felt being interrogated by police inside a locked room at the United States Embassy in Manila.

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) investigators wanted to know why she had used fake marriage annulment documents for her US visa application.

Tears streaming down her face, the Manila-based acupuncturist remembers saying: “This has to be a nightmare, right?”

Bebero had turned to a woman who claimed to be a judicial official to secure an annulment after the COVID-19 pandemic derailed her efforts to go through the usual court process.

After she and her US finance had paid some 500,000 Philippine pesos (USD 8,862) in legal and admin fees, Bebero was attracted by the promise of a speedy annulment for a fee of 210,000 Philippine pesos ($3,722).

Bebero’s annulment never came. As she learned from the police, she had been scammed.

“There is someone out there who wants what I want, a nice peaceful marriage. If someone is willing to give that then I want to be able to give that back,” said Bebero, whose engagement with her fiancé fell apart under the strain of losing so much money.

The extraordinary lengths Bebero was willing to go to annul her marriage reflects the Philippines’s status as the only jurisdiction in the world, apart from the Vatican, that does not recognise divorce.

That leaves Filipino couples who wish to sever ties with no other option than an annulment – a gruelling process for Filipinos of modest means, in particular.

In the deeply Catholic Philippines, annulments typically take about two years, cost about half a million pesos and are usually only granted in extreme cases of abuse or incompatibility.

With legislative moves afoot, the reliance on annulments could finally be about to change.

In June, the Absolute Divorce Bill moved to the Senate after passing the House of Representatives in May.

Bebero and other backers of the bill view the prospect of legalised divorce as a lifeline, particularly for spouses who cannot afford a costly annulment.

“It’s for women who don’t have a choice and are financially trapped in abusive households.

Conservative senators have expressed their aversion to the bill, suggesting instead that amendments be made to the annulment law.

“Instead of divorce, why don’t we study how to make marriage annulments more acceptable and their processes less taxing?” Senator Jinggoy Estrada said in a statement earlier this year.