Dear Mare,

Your friend is incorrect; the divorce decree is valid.

In the case of Republic v. Manalo (G.R. No. 221029, April 24, 2018), the Supreme Court held that under Article 26(2) of the Family Code, where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce is thereafter validly obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse shall have capacity to remarry under Philippine law.

The Supreme Court further held that it is irrelevant who initiated the divorce proceedings, whether the Filipino spouse or the foreign spouse, as long as a divorce decree is obtained. It is in effect, it is obtained by the alien spouse, and the requirements stated in Article 26(2) have been satisfied.

Applied to your case, it is irrelevant that you filed the petition for divorce in Japan. Since the Japanese Court issued the divorce decree, your Japanese spouse, in effect, validly obtained a divorce that capacitated him to remarry. Therefore, you, as the Filipino spouse, also have the capacity to remarry under Philippine law and can have your civil status changed to single.

Hence, the divorce decree is valid.

However, the rule in Republic v. Manalo only applies if one of the parties in the marriage is a foreigner, and the other is a Filipino citizen. Currently, if both parties are Filipino but they somehow acquired a divorce decree, the Supreme Court is still deliberating on the said issue.

(Tabang Torni is for public legal education only. The situations discussed are hypothetical or drawn from public issues and published court decisions. Any resemblance to actual persons or private cases is purely coincidental. No confidential or privileged client information is disclosed. The discussion is general in nature and does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. For advice regarding your specific circumstances, please consult a lawyer.)