ALFI Commends Rep. Biazon on HB 5607: the “Mandatory Marriage Counselling Act”

July 24, 2006


.: Get a copy of ALFI Position Paper on HB 5607 (PDF)

.: Get a copy of HB 216: Mandatory Marriage Counselling Act


The Honorable Cong. Rozzano Rufino B. Biazon
Representative, Lone District of Muntinlupa
Room S-506, House of Representatives
Quezon City

Dear Congressman Biazon:

We read with great interest in the Committee News of Congress, Volume 13, No. 108 dated May 15, 2006, that the Substitute Bill House Bill 5607 to your proposed House Bill 216 has been approved by the Committee on Revision of Laws. We understand that the Committee Report was submitted recently.

We commend your efforts to strengthen the sanctity of marriage and family life through this proposed Bill and support your efforts for its eventual passage. We also firmly agree with the belief you expressed in your Explanatory Note against the legalization of divorce as an “open back door that can be used any time” thereby making marriages “fragile and prone to further deterioration” as well as “endangering new ones.”

We share with you the sincere hope that mandatory marriage counseling will help provide adequate preparation for the roles and responsibilities of spouses so that their marital commitment will be strengthened and their children raised in accordance with their marital vows.

We urge your office therefore to be actively involved in the preparation of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) by the implementing government agency, when the Bill is approved.

We understand from the February 1, 2006 hearing that you will be seeking the help of various social and religious organizations in the preparation of the national standard curriculum for pre-marriage counseling. As a civic organization committed to undertake all kinds of initiatives in order to foster and defend the sanctity of marriage, promote family solidarity and protect life, we volunteer to assist in identifying resources for this curriculum preparation, and hope you may refer us to the appropriate government agency at the proper time.

Let us not allow mandatory marriage counseling to be reduced to a mere variation of the family planning instructional seminars currently being conducted for engaged couples seeking issuance of their marriage license under Presidential Decree 965 of July 20, 1976. If so, marriage preparatory programs would become tools to promote population control. Should that happen, the very spirit and intention of your noble bill would be extinguished.

We hope you may consider our suggestion on this matter.


Very truly yours,


Rosie B. Luistro
President