Once this newly proposed bill is passed as a law, spouses will no longer have a right over each other’s finances or properties.
According to House Bill No. 5268, which was submitted by House of Representatives speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, spouses may maintain ownership of all personal assets and purchases made prior to marriage as well as anything bought after the union.
This means that husbands aren’t obligated to share their salary and assets with their wives. In the same way, they also won’t have a right to their wife’s salary or any property purchased with her own money. Once enacted into law, couples will have a “total separation of property.”
According to the Family Code of the Philippines, all properties of the husband and wife are considered part of their absolute community or conjugal property after marriage, granting there is no marriage settlement or pre-nuptial agreement. The couple, according to the current bill, are equal owners of any property or assets acquired while they are married, regardless if the spouse was aware that the purchase made or not.
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Here are more things couples need to know about the proposed bill
The amendment hopes to ease the burden for those whose marriage have turned sour
House Speaker Alvarez, believing that the current law does not work in the favor of couples in troubled marriages.
“The contestation of property in the face of a growing rift only breeds resentment,” he said in a statement. With the passage of this proposed bill, “each spouse shall own, dispose of, possess, administer and enjoy his and her own property, without need for consent of the other. Additionally, separate earnings shall be owned by each spouse separately.”
This proposed amendment would make it easier for couples to divide their assets if their union does not work out.
The provision of the Family Code which allows couples who are about to be married to have a “regime of absolute community, conjugal partnership of gains, complete separation of property or any other regime.”
The bill does not affect the couple’s responsibility to provide
It’s important to note, however, that this bill does not affect the familial responsibility to both the husband and wife to support each other and their children through separate assets and properties.
READ: Penalize parents who don’t give child support, says bill
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