Manila: For non-Filipino men, marrying a Filipina may be about to get tougher.
If you're a foreigner planning on tying the knot with a Filipina sweetheart, you will soon need to prove your capacity to support your bride - if Philippine Congress gets its way.
A new legislation passed on second reading in the House of Representatives on Wednesday mandating additional requirements for male foreigners to want to marry Filipinas.
“The bill shall protect Filipino women against exploitation of foreigners who marry without evident means to support a family,” Pangasinan Rep. Marlyn Primicias-Agabas, who chairs the committee, was quoted in a Philippine Star report.
The House Committee on Revision of Laws pushed for House Bill 4828, which substituted House Bill 2387 authored by Cebu Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia.
Against trafficking
Garcia earlier said some of the foreigners landing in the Philippines to marry Filipino women turn out to be vagabonds or social and moral derelicts in their own country.
“(For some) the real motive for marriage is only to take advantage and exploit our women by making them work for the family and worse, by sending them to prostitution and other degrading and dehumanising occupations,” she said.
“The exploitation of our Filipino women, through the so-called mail-order or pen-pal, Facebook and other internet-made marriages, has not only caused untold misery and suffering to our Filipino women but it has also brought dishonour and disgrace to the Filipino womanhood,” Garcia added.
Under the measure, the prospective foreign husband will be required to produce a certificate of good moral character and a certificate that he has a gainful trade, business, employment or other lawful source of income to be issued by his country’s diplomatic or consular official, in addition to the usual certificate of legal capacity.
The measure amends Article 21 of Executive Order 209, otherwise known as the Family Code.
Philippine Congress is comprised of the 24-member uppper house (Senate) and the 292-member lower house (House of Representatives)
In a Yahoo post, "Cyra" explained why some Filipinas marry foreigners. The post said: "I'm a Filipina married to a foreigner and we live in the Philippines. This (question) is something that has no easy answer and can't be generalised. In my case, we get along very well and have similar values and background."
See the proposed laws here.
