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Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

z

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

House Bill No. ___ GH
Introduced by Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
EXPLANATORY NOTE

Couples exchange wedding vows with the heartfelt intent of fulfilling the pledge
of lifetime commitment to one another. A marriage is a celebratory occasion filled with
great expectations for a future of love, happiness, and true partnership. No bride or
groom enters matrimony with negative thoughts or intent of evasion. Both believe that
their love will conquer any and all odds that may beset them during their union.

But it is a fact that some marriages break down even with the couples’ resolute
and repeated efforts to solve differences and reconcile.

It has been underscored time and again by divorce advocates that there are only
two sovereign states in the world where divorce is illegal — the Philippines and the
Vatican City.

Other than this singular similarity, the Philippines and Vatican City are not alike
in significant factors like the following:

(a) _ In terms of religion, Vatican City is 100% Catholic, while the Philippines is
predominantly Catholic, a sizeable percentage is Muslim and others profess different
faiths.

(b) According to the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, there
were 434,932 marriages in the Philippines in 2017, an increase of 3.6% from the total
number of marriages in the previous year. Compare this to the mere 100 or so
weddings officiated in the various chapels inside Vatican City yearly, all of which were
unions between non-Vatican residents.

(c) The Philippines has a current population of 108.4 million with women
comprising 49.5% of the total at 53.7 million women. Compared to the Philippines, the
Vatican has an almost microscopic female population. It is home to only 799 people,
around 5% of which or 40 are women, majority of whom are nuns.

Emphasis must be given to statistics involving women because divorce is
primarily an issue of women’s rights. Not being able to get out of an eventual loveless,
unhappy, even abusive marriage is a human rights concern for women.

When there is physical violence in a relationship, women are almost always at
the receiving end of a fist or an open palm. More often than not, it is the wives who are
financially dependent on their husbands and have fewer opportunities for remunerative
work. Women bear the brunt of parenting and childrearing but have less social capital
and civic influence and therefore frequently opt to stay in a long-dead relationship. Men
go up the social ladder faster and are oftentimes paid more for the same kind of work

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than women, which make women waver when it comes to leaving a cheating or cruel
husband.

It is therefore not surprising that the history of divorce laws is intimately
intertwined with the evolution of the rights of women and their increasingly changing
roles in society.

When women became more educated and accomplished, they also sought more
work outside the home; exercised the right to reproductive self-determination by
deciding when and how often to give birth; were less afraid to voice their opinions and
concerns; and contributed increasingly in fields that where previously the exclusive
domain of men.

When women embrace activism and become more politically and socially aware,
they help advance their rights - including the right to divorce their husbands, be
entitled to child support, receive their rightful share in the conjugal properties, and
remarry and build new lives for themselves.

As women all over the world gained more political traction, the divorce laws
slowly became less skewed in favor men and offered more protection for women and
their children.

The oscillating history of divorce in the Philippines can be summed up as follows:
(1) In Pre-Hispanic Philippines divorce was readily available for both men and women
and was fairly routine; (2) During the Spanish colonization absolute divorce was illegal
but legal separation allowed in very specific instances; (3) During the American Period
Act 270 was passed by the Philippine Legislature allowing absolute divorce on the
ground of criminal conviction for adultery on the part of the wife and concubinage on
the part of the husband; (4) During the Japanese Occupation when, by virtue of
Executive Order No. 141, divorce was allowed on 11 grounds which included, among
others, adultery and concubinage, contagious disease contracted by one spouse,
impotency, repeated physical violence, and slander by deed; (5) With the adoption of
the Civil Code of the Philippines under the Philippine Republic absolute divorce was
outlawed and only legal separation was recognized, except for Muslims where absolute
divorce is allowed. (6) In the Post-EDSA period, the Family Code of the Philippines
allowed legal separation, annulment of marriage, and the filing of a petition for
Declaration of Nullity on the ground of psychological incapacity.

Thirty-two years after the institution of the Family Code, the time is more than
ripe and Filipinos are more than ready for a progressive and pro-women Philippine
divorce law. In its March 2018 survey on divorce, the SWS described the support for
divorce as “moderately strong” (at 53% of respondents favoring divorce, 32% opposing
it, and 15% undecided).

It must be underscored that the institution of absolute divorce is definitely not
for couples in harmonious, happy and vibrant marital relationships, which accounts for
the overwhelming majority of Filipino marriages.

Absolute divorce is for the exceptional cases when the martial union is
irremediably severed because marriage still is a human institution that could collapse
and wither because of human limitations.

Critics of the divorce bill must be disabused from the notion that absolute divorce
will destroy marriage. It is important to remember that in divorce proceedings, there is

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no more marriage to protect or union to destroy because the marriage has long
perished. Paraphrasing the language of the Supreme Court in Te vs. Te (G.R. No.
161793, February 13, 2009), the severance of the marriage bond is is a decent
interment of a long-dead marriage.

Notwithstanding the adoption in the 1987 Constitution of the precepts that
marriage is a social institution, that it is the foundation of the family and that it is
inviolable, the Commissioners of the 1986 Constitutional Commission were unanimous
that the Congress is not prohibited or precluded from instituting absolute divorce and
dissolution of marriage under the current Charter.

Verily, this proposed legislation is constitutional and necessary to give full relief
to couples in intolerable and irreconcilable conditions, which full relief is not available
under legal separation, annulment of marriage, and declaration of nullity of marriage
under the Family Code of the Philippines which are costly and lengthy.

The institution of absolute divorce does not temporize the steadfast commitment.
of the State to protect and preserve marriage as a social institution and as the
foundation of the family. This the bill provides for clear and categorical safeguards for
the preservation and protection of marriage.

While the State continues to protect and preserve marriage as a social institution
and as the foundation of the family, shattered marriages beyond rehabilitation happen
due to human failings and frailties.

But when a marriage totally breaks down and reconciliation is nil, it is also the
duty of the State to afford relief to the spouses in irreconcilable relations and bail them
out and their children from the tempest of incessant discord.

The State cannot abandon couples and their children in a house on fire.

Love, trust, and respect, which are the veritable foundations of marriage and
family, are voluntary, mutual and earned. When they are lost, no amount of compulsion
by statute, custom or religion can restore their value.

Moreover, during the previous 17 Congress, the divorce bill was extensively
debated on and was passed by the House of Representatives on third reading.

The foregoing are the reasons why absolute divorce must be available as an
option.

The approval of this measure is earnestly sought.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
Frist Regular Session

House Bill No, 9100

Introduced by: Rep. Edcel C. Lagman

AN ACT INSTITUTING ABSOLUTE DIVORCE AND DISSOLUTION OF
MARRIAGE IN THE PHILIPPINES

Be it enacted by the House of Representatives and the Senate of the Congress of the
Philippines in session assembled:

SECTION 1. Short Title. — This Act shall be known as the “Absolute Divorce Act
of 2019.”

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. - While the State continues to protect and
preserve marriage as a social institution and as the foundation of the family, it shall also
give the opportunity to spouses in irremediably failed marriages to secure an absolute
divorce decree under limited grounds and well-defined judicial procedures to terminate
a continuing dysfunction of a long broken marriage; save the children from the pain,
stress, and agony consequent to their parents’ constant marital clashes; and grant the
divorced spouses the right to marry again for another chance to achieve marital bliss.

SEC. 3. Guiding Principles. — The following shall be the guiding principles of this
Act:

1, Absolute divorce shall be judicially decreed after the fact of an
irremediably broken marital union or a marriage that is defective from the start.

a The State shall assure that the court proceedings for the grant of absolute
divorce shall be affordable and inexpensive, particularly for court assisted litigants or
petitioners.

3. Concerned spouses have the option to file for absolute divorce under this
Act or seek legal separation, annulment of marriage or nullification of marriage under
the pertinent provisions of Executive Order No. 209 otherwise known as the Family
Code of the Philippines.

4 The option of absolute divorce is a pro-woman legislation because in most
cases, it is the wife who is entitled to a divorce as a liberation from an abusive
relationship and to help her regain dignity and self-esteem.

5. A six-month cooling-off period is instituted after the filing of a petition for



absolute divorce as a final attempt for reconciliation of concerned spouses.

6. A divorce decree shall include provisions for the care and custody of
children, protection of their legitime, termination and liquidation of the conjugal
partnership of gains or the absolute community, and alimony for the petitioner.

7. Even as absolute divorce is instituted, the State has the role of
strengthening marriage and family life by undertaking relevant pre-nuptial and post-
matrimonial programs and activities.

SEC. 4. Definition of Terms. — As used in this Act:

a) Abandonment refers to the act of a husband or wife leaving the conjugal
home without justifiable cause and with a deliberate intention of creating a perpetual
separation. The desertion amounts to an absolute cessation of marital relations, rights
and duties;

b) Absolute divorce refers to the separation between married couples that is
total and final where the husband and wife return to their status of being single with
the right to contract marriage again;

c) Alcoholism refers to a habitual or excessive drinking of alcoholic liquor,
often resulting in impaired social functioning and damage to the liver, heart and
nervous system;

d) Alimony refers to an allowance for support made under court order to a
divorced person by the former spouse, usually the main financial provider during the
marriage;

e) Bigamous marriage refers to a second or subsequent marriage contracted
before the former marriage has been legally dissolved, or before the absent spouse has
been declared presumptively dead by means of a judgment rendered in the proper
proceedings;

f) Child refers to a descendant of the first degree by birth, and shall include
an offspring by legal adoption or one whose custody and care is judicially decreed to be
given to a guardian;

g) Child custody refers to the parental authority and care of a child as
decreed by a competent court when the parents of the child are divorced;

h) Child support refers to a method of compensating a parent needing
monies for raising and sheltering a child or children by the other parent who has the
means to pay for the expenses associated with child support. A court of law usually
determines the payments, based on the income level of the parent giving support and
the needs of the child or children requiring support;

i) Chronic gambling refers to a disorder of impulse control in which a person


makes wagers of various types which compromise, disrupt or damage family, work and
social relations, and vocational pursuits;

i) Competent court refers to the proper family court established under
Republic Act No. 8369 or the “Family Courts Act of 1997”, which shall exercise
jurisdiction both over the absolute divorce proceeding and the persons of the petitioner
and respondent spouses;

k) Court assisted petitioner or petitioners refer to those who have personal
or real properties not exceeding One Million Pesos (PhP1,000,000.00);

) Domestic or marital abuse refers to violence or aggressive behavior within
the home, typically involving the violent abuse of a spouse by the other. It may be
committed in the form of:

(1) physical violence;

(2) psychological and emotional violence;
(3) sexual violence; or

(4) economic abuse;

m) Drug addiction refers to habitual dependence on a prohibited drug or
drugs;

n) Homosexual refers to a person who is attracted to persons of the same
Sex;

0) Insanity refers to a condition or “a manifestation in language or in conduct
of a disease or defect of the brain, a more or less permanent disease or disorder
condition of the mentality, functional or organic, and characterized by perversion,
inhibition, or disordered function of the sensory or of the intellectual faculties, or by
impaired or disordered volition";

p) Irreconcilable differences refer to the existence of overriding conflicts
between a married couple that are so pronounced and beyond repair as to make the
marriage unworkable, and for which the law permits a divorce;

q) Joint petition refers to the legal action filed by both spouses, before the
Family Court for the dissolution of their marriage based on any of the grounds for
absolute divorce provided for in this Act.

r) Legitime refers to the portion of a parent's estate from which they cannot
disinherit the children, without sufficient legal cause;

s) Marital infidelity refers to the unfaithfulness of a spouse during the
marriage;

a9) Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) or Migrant Worker refers to a citizen of
the Philippines who is living and working in a foreign country, typically on a temporary

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basis with a work contract or as defined under Sec. 3 of Republic Act No. 8042 as
amended by Republic Act No. 10022, otherwise known as the “Migrant Workers and
Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995”;

u) Psychological incapacity refers to the condition provided for in Article 36 of
the Family Code of the Philippines which warrants the nullification of a marriage;

v) Sex reassignment surgery refers to the procedure by which a person's
physical appearance and function of primary sex characteristics are altered to resemble
that of the identified or preferred gender;

w) Summary judicial proceedings refer to an expeditious manner of resolving
a petition for divorce without regard to technical rules and the petitioner is given the
option to be assisted or not by a lawyer. The proper court may allow presentation of
evidence ex parte as warranted by circumstances. The decision shall be immediately
final and executory;

x) Transgender refers to those whose gender identity or expression differs
from what is typically associated with the sex assigned at birth;

y) Transsexual refers to a person who emotionally and psychologically feels
that one belongs to the opposite sex, and who opts for a transition from one sex to
another through the use of hormones or surgical procedure.

SEC. 5. Grounds for Absolute Divorce. — The following are the grounds for a
judicial decree of absolute divorce:

a) The grounds for legal separation under Article 55 of the Family Code of
the Philippines, modified or amended, as follows:

(1) Physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against the

petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner;

(2) Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to change
religious or political affiliation;

(3) Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a common
child, or a child of the petitioner, to engage in prostitution, or connivance
in such corruption or inducement;

(4) _ Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more than
six (6) years, even if pardoned;

(5) Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism or chronic gambling of the
respondent;

(6) | Homosexuality of the respondent;

(7) Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage,

whether in the Philippines or abroad; ee cad

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(8) Marital infidelity or perversion or having a child with another person other
than one’s spouse during the marriage, except when upon the mutual
agreement of the spouses, a child is born to them by in vitro or a similar
procedure or when the wife bears a child after being a victim of rape;

(9) Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner, a common
child or a child of the petitioner;

(10) Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for
more than one (1) year;

When the spouses are legally separated by judicial decree for more than two (2)
years, either or both spouses can petition the proper court for an absolute divorce
based on said judicial decree of legal separation.

b) Grounds for annulment of marriage under Article 45 of the Family Code of
the Philippines, restated as follows:

(1) _ The party in whose behalf it is sought to have the marriage annulled was
eighteen (18) years of age or over but below twenty-one (21), and the
marriage was solemnized without the consent of the parents, guardian or
person having substitute parental authority over the party, in that order,
unless after attaining the age of twenty-one (21), such party freely
cohabited with the other and both lived together as husband and wife;

(2) Either party was of unsound mind, unless such party after coming to
reason, freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife;

(3) The consent of either party was obtained by fraud, unless such party
afterwards, with full knowledge of the facts constituting the fraud, freely
cohabited with the other as husband and wife;

(4) The consent of either party was obtained by force, intimidation or undue
influence, unless the same having disappeared or ceased, such party
thereafter freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife;

(5) Either party was physically incapable of consummating the marriage with
the other, and such incapacity continues or appears to be incurable;

(6) Either party was afflicted with a sexually transmissible infection found to
be serious or appears to be incurable:

Provided, That the grounds mentioned in numbers 2, 5 and 6 existed either at

the time of the marriage or supervening after the marriage.

¢) When the spouses have been separated in fact for at least five (5) years
at the time the petition for absolute divorce is filed, and reconciliation is highly

improbable. eae


d) Psychological incapacity of either spouse as provided for in Article 36 of
the Family Code of the Philippines, whether or not the incapacity was present at the
time of the celebration of the marriage or later.

e) When one of the spouses undergoes a gender reassignment surgery or
transitions from one sex to another, the other spouse is entitled to petition for absolute
divorce with the transgender or transsexual as respondent, or vice versa.

f) Irreconcilable marital differences and conflicts which have resulted in the
total breakdown of the marriage beyond repair, despite earnest and repeated efforts at
reconciliation, shall entitle either spouse or both spouses to petition for absolute
divorce.

SEC. 6. Procedure for Obtaining Absolute Divorce. — (a) The established and
recognized procedures for securing legal separation, annulment of marriage and voiding
of a marriage under the Family Code of the Philippines, as far as practicable, shall
govern the process of obtaining a judicial decree of absolute divorce from the proper
family court which shall be commenced by the petitioner or joint petitioners filing a
verified petition for absolute divorce.

(b) The factors and grounds which militate against the grant of legal separation
and the annulment and nullification of marriages as provided for in the Family Code of
the Philippines shall likewise be assessed, based on competent and credible proof,
against the grant of absolute divorce.

(c) Upon application of a court-assisted petitioner or petitioners, the proper court
shall waive the payment of filing fees and other costs of litigation, and shall appoint a
counsel de oficio for court assisted petitioner or petitioners and assign social workers,
psychologists, and psychiatrists, preferably from appropriate government agencies, to
assist the said petitioner and the court.

(d) A petition for absolute divorce may be filed jointly by the spouses on the
grounds of de facto separation for five (5) years, legally separated by judicial
declaration for at least two (2) years, or irreconcilable differences or other grounds for
absolute divorce provided for in this Act.

A joint petition filed by both spouses with common children should be
accompanied by a joint plan for parenthood which provides for the support, parental
authority, custody, and living arrangements of the common children.

If the court determines that the joint plan for parenthood is adequate to protect
the rights and interests of the common children, the court shall approve the joint plan
for parenthood together with the grant of a divorce decree if warranted.

The court shall ensure the enforcement of the joint plan for parenthood and may


require the spouses to submit periodic reports on its implementation subject to the
validation of court's social worker or by the local social welfare officer.

(e) All creditors of the absolute community or of the conjugal partnership of
gains, as well as the personal creditors of the spouses, shall be listed in the petition for
absolute divorce and notified of the filing thereof. The court shall take measures to
protect the creditors and other persons with pecuniary interest.

(f) No decree of absolute divorce shall be based upon a stipulation of facts or a
confession of judgment.

(g) The Office of the Public Prosecutor in provinces, cities and capital towns is
authorized and obliged to conduct investigations to find out whether or not there is
collusion between the spouses in a petition for absolute divorce and shall report its
findings to the proper court within six (6) months from the filing of the petition.

SEC. 7. Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). — Petitioners who are OFWs shall be
given priority by the proper court with respect to the hearing of their petitions and the
court shall set the reception of evidence, upon the availability of the petitioners, for not
more than two (2) consecutive days.

SEC. 8. Summary Judicial Proceedings. - The following grounds for absolute
divorce may be subject to summary judicial proceeding as defined in Sec. 4 (w):

(a) When the spouses have been separated de facto for at least five (5) years;

(b) When one of the spouses has contracted a bigamous marriage;

(c) When the spouses have been legally separated by judicial decree for two (2)

years or more;

(d)When one of the spouses has been sentenced to imprisonment for six (6)

years, even if subsequently pardoned;

(e) When one of the spouses has undergone a sex reassignment surgery or has

transitioned into another sex; and

(f) When both spouses have filed a joint petition for the dissolution of their

marriage before the proper Family Court based on any of the grounds

provided for in this Act.

SEC. 9. Mandatory six-month cooling-off period. — Except for grounds under
summary judicial proceedings, the proper court shall not start the trial of a petition for
absolute divorce before the expiration of a six-month cooling-off period after the filing
of the petition during which the court shall exercise all efforts to reunite and reconcile
the parties.

The requirement of a cooling off period shall not apply in cases which involve
acts of violence against women and their children under Republic Act No. 9262

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otherwise known as the “Anti-violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004”
or attempt against the life of the other spouse or a common child or a child of the
petitioner.

SEC. 10. Effects of Absolute Divorce. - The decree of absolute divorce shall
have the following effects.

a) The marriage bonds shall be severed and the divorced spouses shall have
the right to contract marriage again, either by civil or religious ceremony.

b) The custody of the minor children shall be decided by the proper court in
accordance with the best interests of the children, subject to the provisions of Article
213 of the Family Code of the Philippines taking into primary consideration that no child
under seven (7) years of age shall be separated from the mother, unless the proper
court finds compelling reasons to order otherwise.

c) The conjugal partnership of gains or the absolute community shall be
dissolved and liquidated and the assets shall be equally divided between the spouses
‘excluding the paraphernal or exclusive properties of either spouse. The recognition and
delivery of the presumptive legitime of the common children shall be at the option of
both spouses. The presumptive legitime shall be computed as of the date of the finality
of the decree of absolute divorce. The partition and distribution of the properties of the
spouses and the delivery of the children’s presumptive legitime upon the option of the
spouses shall be recorded in the appropriate civil registry and registries of property,
otherwise the same shall not affect third persons.

d) In addition to the equal share in the assets of the absolute community or
conjugal partnership, the petitioner who is not gainfully employed shall be entitled to
support from the respondent until the petitioner finds adequate employment: Provided,
That the support shall not exceed two (2) years from the finality of the decree of
absolute divorce and shall cease upon the petitioner’s remarriage; Provided, Further,
That the right to support shall be subject to the provisions of Article 201 of the Family
Code of the Philippines where the amount of support shall be in proportion to the
resources or means of the giver and to the necessities of the recipient.

e) The proper court shall have the discretion to grant alimony, child support
and child custody pursuant to the pertinent provisions of the Family Code of the
Philippines, and impose contempt of court against the defaulting parties. The petitioner
may opt for a one-time or on a monthly basis alimony. The necessity of alimony and
the amount shall be determined by the court taking into consideration all relevant
factors.

f) The petitioner may revoke the donations made in favor of the respondent,

11


as well as the designation of the latter as a beneficiary in any insurance policy, even if
such designation be stipulated as irrevocable. The revocation of the donations shall be
recorded in the registries of properties in the places where the properties are located.
Alienations, liens and encumbrances registered in good faith before the recording of the
complaint for revocation in the registry of property shall be respected. The revocation
of or a change in the designation of the insurance beneficiary shall take effect upon
written notification thereof to the insured.

The action to revoke the donation under this provision must be brought within
five (5) years from the time the decree of absolute divorce has become final.

g) The effects on the divorced spouses with respect to intestate succession,
testamentary dispositions, donations and insurance provisions on beneficiaries in
accordance with the Family Code of the Philippines and jurisprudence will be observed.

h) The legitimate and adopted children of divorced parents shall retain their
legal status and legitimacy; a child conceived or born within 300 days after the filing of
a petition for absolute divorce shall be considered legitimate, unless the ground for
divorce is the marital infidelity of the wife.

SEC. 11. Recognition of Reconciliation - (a) If the petitioners have agreed to
reconcile, a corresponding joint manifestation under oath duly signed by them shall be
filed with the same court where the petition for absolute divorce was filed with the
interests of the children duly protected.

(b) The plan to reconcile shall have the following consequences:

(1) The absolute divorce proceedings, if still pending, shall be
terminated at whatever stage, and

(2) The final decree of absolute divorce shall be set aside, but the
separation of property and any forfeiture of the share of the respondent
already effected shall subsist, unless the spouses agree to revive their
former property regime.

The court order containing the foregoing shall be recorded in the proper civil
registries.

(c) The agreement to revive the former property regime referred to in this
Act shall be executed under oath and shall specify:

(1) _ the properties to be contributed anew to the restored regime;
(2) _ those to be retained as separate properties of each spouse; and
(3) the names of all their known creditors, their addresses and the
amounts owing to each.
The agreement of revival and the motion for its approval shall be filed with the

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court in the same proceeding for absolute divorce, with copies of both furnished to the
creditors named therein. After due hearing, the court shall issue an order to protect the
interest of creditors and such order shall be recorded in the proper registries of
properties.

The recording of the order in the registries of properties shall not prejudice any
creditor not listed or not notified.

SEC. 12. Penalty. - A spouse who is a party to a petition for absolute divorce
who is found by the court to have used threats or coercion to compel the other spouse
in filing the petition, and spouses who are guilty of collusion, shall be punished with
imprisonment of five (5) years and a fine of Two hundred thousand pesos
(PhP200,000.00).

Any parent in default of providing the required child support under this Act shall
be imposed stiff fines and contempt of court.

SEC. 13. Options and Remedies. —- The concerned spouse or spouses shall have
the option to file a petition for absolute divorce under this Act or avail of legal
separation, annulment or nullification of marriage as provided for in the Family Code of
the Philippines.

SEC. 14. Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR). - The Department of
Justice (DOJ) as lead agency, together with the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD), the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW), the National Youth
Commission (NYC), and at least two (2) representatives from women’s organizations to
be appointed by the PCW in consultation with civil society and women’s organizations
shall promulgate the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) within sixty (60) days
after the effectivity of this Act.

SEC. 15. Separability Clause. — If any part or provision of this Act is held invalid
or unconstitutional, the other provisions not affected thereby shall remain in force and
effect.

SEC. 16. Repealing Clause. — All laws, executive orders, issuances, decrees, rules
and regulations inconsistent with or contrary to the provisions of this Act are deemed
amended, modified or repealed accordingly.

SEC. 17. Effectivity. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its
publication in the Official Gazette or in any newspaper of general circulation.

Approved,

eee