CEDAW/C/SR.327 English Page 15 88. The evaluation of the marriage and family relations laws described in the second periodic report formed part of the Government's efforts to review discriminatory legislation. The Family Code was being amended, for example, to provide for judicial intervention in cases of disagreement between husband and wife over the administrative enjoyment of their conjugal partnership in properties and the exercise of joint parental authority and legal guardianship over the property of unemancipated common children. 89. Current housing policies did not discriminate against women, although the tediousness of the application process worked against them. The National Housing Authority encouraged applicants who were common-law wives to register as the beneficiaries of the housing benefit in order to protect themselves financially, should the relationship end. 90. Conflicts relating to child custody and the family were resolved by the court. In cases involving children, the best interest of the child prevailed. To date, no bill had been filed in Congress to amend article 16 of the Civil Code, which provided for the annulment of a marriage if the wife became pregnant by a man other than her husband but was silent about the case of a man who impregnated a woman not his wife. 91. Article 29 of the Civil Code provided that a married woman 21 years of age or over was qualified for all acts of civil life, except in cases specified by law. Those cases were insanity or imbecility, prodigality and civil interdiction, the latter of which deprived the offender during the time of the sentence of various rights, including the right of parental authority or guardianship, the right to marital authority and the right to manage or dispose of his or her property. 92. With respect to adultery, legislation had been introduced to accord equal rights to wives and husbands by stating that sexual infidelity on the part of either spouse was a ground for legal separation. The legislation would further amend the use of the term “concubinage” to “maintaining a paramour”. As to why some Philippine women were unable to avail themselves of Muslim law, it must be remembered that only Muslims were covered by the Code of Muslim Personal Laws, and not all Philippine women were Muslims. 93. On the subject of the education of women about their rights, she said that non-governmental organizations, including the Women's Legal Bureau and the Legal Resources Centre had legal training modules. In addition, alternative law groups and human rights groups were increasingly integrating women's issues into their training programmes. While no bill on divorce was pending, the Family Code provided an alternative to divorce in that one of the grounds for the declaration of the nullity of a marriage was the psychological incapacity to fulfil the essential marital obligations. After a woman separated from her husband, she was entitled to lie separately from him, but the marriage bonds were not severed. However, since the right to cohabit or live together had ceased, the husband could not insist on having sexual intercourse with his wife. 94. With regard to the Church's influence in preventing the passage of the divorce law and the widespread use of contraceptives, as well as in foiling efforts to decriminalize abortion, she said that the Church had been able to prevent the passage of the divorce law because a majority of legislators were / ...