CEDAW/C/SR.748 (A) petitions for annulment had been filed in the preceding five years, and how many for legal separation. Of those petitions, how many had cited domestic violence as the grounds? 45. She understood that a Muslim woman needed her husband’s consent before she could exercise her right to pursue an occupation. Since that did not appear to be consistent with Islamic teachings, she asked what the Government was doing to break those cultural chains and to familiarize Muslim wives with their legal rights. 46. Ms. Dunuan (Philippines) said that amendments to several of the legal provisions perceived as discriminatory were currently being considered in the House of Representatives or the Senate. For example, the discriminatory provisions on infidelity were being amended by the Marital Infidelity Bill, which would no longer make a distinction between concubinage and adultery. There would also no longer be a more severe penalty for women than for men. The Government was making every effort to identify any remaining legal provisions that were discriminatory against women and to determine whether they should be amended or repealed. In the case of the Civil Code and the revised Penal Code, the usual procedure was to amend individual provisions. 47. Divorce was not legal in the Philippines. The marriage contract could be terminated only on the basis of a petition for annulment, on the grounds given in the Family Code. Nullification meant that the marriage became void from the very beginning, as if it had never been contracted. Legal separation, on the other hand, might be categorized as a virtual divorce. It provided for separate living arrangements and terminated the marital rights of husband and wife, but the couple remained married in name. Over and above the grounds enumerated in the report, an annulment or legal separation could be obtained if either spouse had not consented to the marriage or lacked the capacity to contract marriage, or if the person who had performed the marriage ceremony lacked the authority to do so. 48. In the event that a marriage was annulled or a legal separation was granted, the decision normally included a declaration as to the settlement of the property. Usually, the spouse providing the grounds for separation or annulment would forfeit all conjugal property. Thus, the children’s inheritance would be protected. 8 49. Ms. Verzosa (Philippines), referring to efforts to amend the Code of Muslim Personal Laws, said that both the national Government and two NGOs had begun dialogues with Muslim women’s groups in Mindanao to address gender issues in the context of Islam. The plan was to have dialogues at the provincial level and a consultation at the national level to make Muslim women more aware of gender concerns. Studies had been undertaken by the NGOs on how the provisions of the Convention related to the discriminatory provisions of the Code of Muslim Personal Laws. Initiatives to amend that Code were pending in the regional legislative assembly, and it was hoped that there would be progress before the end of the current legislative term. 50. Ms. Dunuan (Philippines) said that the courts were very liberal in granting petitions for separation or annulment, provided that they were grounded in the criteria allowed under the law. Success in communicating to women that they had such remedies could be seen in the fact that the family courts, which had been revived in 1997 and now numbered 79, had a backlog of thousands of cases. In fact, it had been necessary for the Supreme Court to establish a mobile family court, based in the Manila region, with two more planned for the Visayas and Mindanao. That demonstrated that more women were asserting their rights. 51. Ms. Verzosa (Philippines) said that statistics were not available on the number of annulments or separations, but the Supreme Court had recently installed a new information system that might have the capacity to provide those statistics. 52. Ms. Padilla (Philippines) wished to clarify that her description of overseas employment as an option for the workforce had been made in the context of the provisions of the Migrant Workers Act, which stated that overseas employment was not a strategy for national development. The Government would not compel workers to go abroad, nor would it stop them from doing so, and it would provide them with all the necessary protection. 53. Ms. Cabral (Philippines) thanked the Committee for its useful comments, which would be reported to the Government for serious consideration. It was to be hoped that the next report would show further advances in the elimination of discrimination against women. 06-46703