Philippines

In 1987, the government of the Philippines introduced a Constitution that affirms

equality for all citizens, regardless of gender. Still, significant gender imbalances
remain and customary laws that discriminate against women prevail, particularly in
rural areas where girls and boys have unequal access to education, and men and
women have different employment opportunities. In the cities, government agencies
are slowly recognising women’s rights and granting them legal authority to exercise
those rights, especially in concluding contracts, and owning land or property.

FAMILY CODE:

Women in the Philippines have a relatively high degree of protection within the
family context. Their situation improved with the promulgation of the 1997 Family
Code, which removed several discriminatory provisions under the Civil Code. The
Family Code set the legal age of marriage at 18 years for both men and women. Still,
the incidence of early marriage is somewhat elevated: a 2004 United Nations report
estimated that 10 per cent of girls between 15 and 19 years of age were married,
divorced or widowed. Other sources indicate that women’s age at first marriage is
increasing in the Philippines, and is strongly linked to level of education: urban
women generally marry at a later age than rural women.

Polygamy is illegal for non-Muslim citizens (about 95 per cent of the population) and
arranged marriages are not part of Filipino tradition. Filipino law does not provide for
divorce, although if one spouse is a foreign national, the courts generally recognise
the legality of divorces obtained in other countries.

Within the Constitution, men and women were granted equal parental authority and
shared responsibility for raising their children. In cases of marriage annulment,
illegitimacy or divorce in another country, the Family Code provides that children
under the age of seven are placed with the mother, unless there is a court order to
the contrary. According to the US Department of State, children over the age of
seven typically remain with the mother, although the father can at that time dispute
custody through the courts.

There is no legal discrimination between men and women in the area of inheritance.
TABLE 5 Number of Marriages by Previous Marital Status of Bride and
Groom: 2005

=======================================================================
=============
Previous Marital
Status of Bride
Previous Marital Status Total
-------------------------------------------------
of Groom Single Married Widow Divorced
Not Stated
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------

Total 518,595 514,389 - 3,516 485

205

Single 505,860 503,605 - 1,837 342

76
Married 108 80 - 4 3
21
Widower 5,229 3,729 - 1,457 39
4
Divorced 7,209 6,881 - 217 100
11
Not stated 189 94 - 1 1
93

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Source: National Statistics Office, Vital Statistics Division

Page last updated: May 20, 2008

TABLE 1 Number, Percent Distribution, Crude Marriage Rate, and Percent
Change of Marriages by Region:
2004-2005

=======================================================================
==============================
2005 |
2004 |
Region
-------------------------|--------------------------| Percent
(Place of Occurrence) Number Percent CMR |
Number Percent CMR | Change
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------

Philippines 518,595 100.0 6.2

582,281 100.0 7.0 (10.9)

National Capital Region 82,830 16.0 7.4

92,921 16.0 8.4 (10.9)
Cordillera Administrative Region 9,708 1.9 6.2
10,868 1.9 7.1 (10.7)
I - Ilocos Region 32,356 6.2 7.2
36,022 6.2 8.1 (10.2)
II - Cagayan Valley 24,145 4.7 7.8
27,281 4.7 9.0 (11.5)
III - Central Luzon 67,605 13.0 7.8
72,861 12.5 8.6 (7.2)
IV-A - Calabarzon 67,042 12.9 6.6
76,800 13.2 7.7 (12.7)
IV-B - Mimaropa 14,119 2.7 5.7
17,684 3.0 7.3 (20.2)
V - Bicol Region 28,295 5.5 5.5
35,881 6.2 7.1 (21.1)
VI - Western Visayas 39,171 7.6 5.7
37,089 6.4 5.5 5.6
VII - Central Visayas 37,961 7.3 6.2
42,975 7.4 7.2 (11.7)
VIII - Eastern Visayas 16,333 3.1 3.9
24,823 4.3 6.1 (34.2)
IX - Zamboanga Peninsula 15,440 3.0 4.9
18,399 3.2 5.9 (16.1)
X - Northern Mindanao 28,282 5.5 7.1
26,612 4.6 6.8 6.3
XI - Davao Region 23,600 4.6 5.8
26,496 4.6 6.6 (10.9)
XII - Soccsksargen 17,521 3.4 4.9
19,165 3.3 5.5 (8.6)
XIII - Caraga 11,623 2.2 4.8
13,780 2.4 5.8 (15.7)
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao 2,564 0.5 0.8
2,624 0.5 0.9 (2.3)

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Source: National Statistics Office, Vital Statistics Division

Page last updated: May 20, 2008

MARRIAGES: Philippines, 2007

Explanatory Notes
Data on marriages presented in this release were obtained from the second copy of the marriage
certificates that were registered at the Office of the City/Municipal Civil Registrars all throughout
the country and forwarded to the National Statistics Office. Figures presented include only those
marriages which occurred in 2007 and were registered from January 2007 to March 2008.
Figures are not adjusted for underregistration.

Registered Marriages in 2007 numbered to 490,054

There were 490,054 marriages that were registered in 2007. The number represented a decrease
of 2,612 marriages or 0.5 percent from the 2006 figure of 492,666.

Six regions, namely: National Capital Region (NCR), Region X, Region XII, Region VII, Region III
and Region IV-A reported declines in the number of marriages. The biggest downward slope was
recorded in NCR at 9.4 percent.

The rest of the remaining regions of the country reported increases in terms of number of
marriages from the figures reported a year earlier. The highest increase of 13.4 percent was
recorded in Caraga.

Crude Marriage Rate was at 5.5

The Crude Marriage Rate (CMR) for the year 2007 was 5.5 at the national level. CMR refers to
the rate at which couples marry per thousand population.
Eight regions had CMR value above the national figure. Three of those regions with high CMR
were in Luzon. On top of the list was Region II with 7.6. Second in rank were Region III and NCR
with the same CMR of 6.5.

On the other end, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) which recorded CMR value
of only 0.8 was the lowest. The other two regions which belonged to the bottom three, in terms of
CMR value in 2007, were Region VIII and Region IX with 4.1 and 4.4, respectively.

NCR recorded the most number of registered marriages

The highest number of registered marriages was recorded by the National Capital Region (NCR)
with 72,584 or 14.8 percent of the national total. NCR was followed by Region IV-A
(CALABARZON) with 62,299 (12.7%) and Region III (Central Luzon) with 61,942 (12.6%). These
top three regions were also the only regions that contributed more than ten percent each to total
marriages in 2007.

On the extreme end, the smallest count of only 2,610 or 0.8 percent of the total registered
marriages in 2007 was recorded by ARMM.

Marriages peaked during the month of May

In 2007, most couples preferred to tie knots during the month of May. In fact during this month a
total of 53,987 marriages or a daily occurrence of 1,742 was registered.

Although the month of April ranked only second in terms of total number of marriages (53,817), it
recorded the highest daily occurrence of 1,794 marriages in 2007.
Meanwhile, the month of December which was second in rank in 2006, recorded a total count of
51,249 marriages a year later and thus, moved to third place.

On the contrary, the month of November appeared to be the least preferred month for wedding
ceremonies as it recorded the lowest number of marriages of only 23,423.

Women preferred to marry at ages 20-24 while men at ages 25-29

In 2007, about four out of ten brides get married at ages 20-24 years. The said age group of
women recorded 186,012 or 38.0% out of the 490,054 marriages.
The second most likely choice of women for settling down was at ages 25-29 with 136,584
(27.9%).

As expected men preferred to enter married life at an older age than women. In 2007, three out of
ten grooms (169,845 or 34.7%) old tied knots with their brides at ages 25-29 years.

Meanwhile, there were 69,052 (14.1% of total marriages) teen brides in 2007. Teen brides were
almost five times more than teen grooms (15,312 or 3.1% of total marriages). The sex ratio of
teen grooms to teen brides was 22.2.

In contrast, the number of men (16,599 or 3.4%) who married at age 50 years old and above was
more than double compared to the number of women (6,562 or 1.3%) of the same age group.

Median age for brides was 24.7 while for grooms was 29.7.

Almost half of marriages were solemnized through civil rites

Marriages celebrated through civil rites in 2007 numbered 204,335 or 41.7 percent of the 490,054
total marriages reported during the year.

Wedding ceremonies in Roman Catholic churches was the second highest with 179,562 or 36.6
percent of the total reported marriages.

Compared to data a year earlier (2006), it can be observed that the number and percentages of
marriages held civilly and in Roman Catholic ceremonies decreased in 2007.

On the one hand, it can be noted that marriages in Islam, tribal and other religious rites increased
in number and percentages from 2006 to 2007.
Source: National Statistics Office
Manila, Philippines

Page last revised: May 21, 2010

TEENAGE MARRIAGES: PHILIPPINES 2006

In 2006, out of the 492,666 reported total marriages, 83,796 or

17.0% percent were teenage marriages. Teenagers refer to
persons under 20 years old.

Of the total teenage marriages, 68,446 were females (brides).

Said number was more than four times the number of males
(grooms) of only 15,350.

The estimated sex ratio for teenage marriages was 22.4

grooms per 100 brides.
Among age groups, young ladies ranked third among those
with the highest share to the total number of brides. On the
contrary, young men were second to the lowest of the total
number of grooms.

Only a small percentage (0.04%) of teenagers remarried after

being widowed (0.02%) or divorced (0.02%).
For the past five years, from 2002 to 2006, the total marriages
for both teenage brides and grooms showed a declining trend.

Likewise, teenage marriages contracted in Roman Catholic

churches revealed the same declining trend. On the contrary,
marriage ceremonies celebrated in Islam and tribal rites were
on upward trend.

Most teenage brides got married either in Roman Catholic

ceremonies (28,218 or 41.2%) or civil rites (27,471 or 40.1%).

Meanwhile, more teenage grooms preferred to officially tie

knots with their partners in civil rites (6,588 or 42.9%) than in
Roman Catholic churches (5,906 or 38.5%), about 4.4
percentage points difference.

Index of Vital Statistics

Source: National Statistics Office

Manila, Philippines

Page last revised: February 19, 2010