Women legislators initiated bills to amend “unfair” and “discriminatory” provisions in the Family Code.
By DENNIS ESPADA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — Getting married is not always followed by living happily ever after. Women continue to become victims of violence perpetrated by spouses who dominate and control them, or treat them as inferior.
In an effort to make remedies under Executive Order 209, otherwise known as the Family Code of the Philippines, more practical and accessible, Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) representatives Emmi De Jesus and Luzviminda Ilagan filed House Bill 5238 and House Bill 5105 during the last quarter of 2014. The first seeks to amend Article 55, while the second seeks to amend Articles 96 and 124. Both bills target to eliminate certain provisions that are “unfair” and “discriminatory” to women.
They said that these legislative moves in Congress are part of priority changes endorsed by the Philippine Commission on Women, and in compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), an international treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly which was signed and ratified in 1981 by more than 50 countries, including the Philippines.
Simpler processes
According to the findings of the 2008 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO), 14.4 percent of married women from ages 15 to 49 have experienced physical violence from their husbands; and more than 37 percent (one-third) of separated or widowed women have suffered the same.
The types of physical violence mentioned in the study are: slapping, pushing, shaking and throwing something at her; twisting her arm or pulling her hair; punching her with a fist or with something that could hurt her; kicking, dragging or beating her up; trying to choke or burn her on purpose; and threatening or attacking her with a knife, gun or any other weapon.
Due to lack of awareness on women and children’s rights, some victims and witnesses do not report these incidents to authorities because they presume these as internal family problems. Many incidents, often associated with alcohol and drug abuse, go unreported out of fear or shame.
Under House Bill 5238, “repeated physical violence” will be replaced with “severity or gravity of violence committed” as one of the grounds for legal separation, which broadens the definition to include psychological, financial or economic, or sexual violence, or any serious attempts to inflict violence against the woman and her children.
The need to prove repetitive violence puts women at a disadvantage as they are forced to go back to abusive husbands before they can ask the courts for legal separation,” DeJesus explained in a statement, adding that the proposed amendments are consistent with Republic Act 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act of 2004.
Though legal separation grants the couple’s freedom to live separately, it does not break the bond of marriage.
Fair guidelines
House Bill 5105, meanwhile, strikes out the phrase “in case of disagreement, the husband’s decision shall prevail, subject to recourse to the court by the wife for proper remedy” in the joint administration and enjoyment of community property. It likewise repeals the five-year deadline for the wife to take the case to court.
“The articles that give the husband the preference over unresolved property issues reflect the antiquated view that the husband’s wisdom prevails in all family matters,” De Jesus said in a separate statement.
“Giving the wife a chance to challenge this in court does not provide a remedy. It is still grossly unfair to women, as they have to hire a lawyer and forces her to sue her husband and this strains the marriage.”
In its explanatory note, GWP stated: “More significantly, conjugal or community properties will also be preserved and safeguarded from unilateral and reckless decisions that are often resorted to when conflict occurs between wife and husband.”
If both enacted, these amendments, she added, will afford relief to married women who need to free themselves from the atrocity, and to remove unfair disadvantage in settling property disputes. 
