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Annulment

UPDATED ON MAY 13, 2021
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Marriage is a peculiar institution in the Philippines, the only country on earth in which there is still no general law on divorce.<a href="https://lawyerphilippines.org/psychological-incapacity-and-proving-it-in-court/#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a>
It is a constitutionally protected institution.
Any legal assault on a marriage must hurdle Sections 1 and 2 of Article XV of the Constitution, which provide that,
&ldquo;The State recognizes the Filipino family as the foundation of the nation. Accordingly, it shall strengthen its solidarity and actively promote its total development.&rdquo;
and
&ldquo;Marriage, as an&nbsp;inviolable social institution, is the foundation of the family and shall be protected by the State.&rdquo;
Anyone who seeks to legally dissolve a marriage in the Philippines has her work cut out for her.
Lacking divorce, married persons who seek to dissolve their union here often resort to a petition for declaration of nullity of the marriage. This is different from divorce. Whereas divorce ends a marriage, the legal fiction applied to a marriage declared null and void is that it never truly came into effect. That, in a sense, the marriage never happened at all.

Psychological incapacity and proving it in court