Republic of the Philippines vs. Marelyn Tanedo Manalo, G.R. No. 221029, April 24, 2018

FACTS

Manalo filed a petition for cancellation of entry of marriage in the Civil Registry of San Juan, Metro Manila, by virtue of a judgment of divorce rendered by a Japanese court.

The trial court denied the petition for lack of merit. It opined that under the nationality principle, Manalo’s cannot file a petition for divorce in court because they have no right to divorce. Hence, the divorce decree which she obtained under Japanese law cannot be given effect.

ISSUE

Whether a Filipino citizen has the capacity to remarry under Philippine law after initiating a divorce proceeding abroad and obtaining a favorable judgment against his or her alien spouse.

HELD

YES. Article 26 par. 2 is clear that it only requires that there be a divorce validly obtained abroad. It does not distinguish whether the Filipino spouse is the petitioner or the respondent in the foreign divorce proceeding. Whether the Filipino spouse initiated the foreign divorce proceeding or not, a favorable decree dissolving the marriage bond and capacitating his or her alien spouse to remarry will have the same result: the Filipino spouse will effectively be without a husband or wife. A Filipino who initiated a foreign divorce proceeding is in the same place and in “like circumstance as a Filipino who is at the receiving end of an alien initiated proceeding.

Blind adherence to the nationality principle must be disallowed if it would cause unjust discrimination and oppression to certain classes of individuals whose rights are equally protected by law.

Jurisprudence has set guidelines before Philippine courts recognize a foreign judgment relating to the status of a marriage where one of the parties is a citizen of a foreign country. 

1. Presentation solely of the divorce decree will not suffice. 
2. Before a foreign divorce decree can be recognized by our courts, the party pleading it must prove the divorce as a fact and demonstrate its conformity to the foreign law allowing it.

The Court held that because Manalo was unable to prove the Japanese law involved as a fact, the divorce is not to be recognized. However, the Court held that the effects of Article 26, par. 2, would also be applicable even if it were the Filipino spouse, not the alien spouse, who obtains a foreign divorce.

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