DIVORCE, in its simplest terms, is the legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other competent authority. Many Filipinos are unaware that absolute divorce was permitted in the Philippines as early as 1917.

During the American colonial period, the Philippines was under military governance. The Philippine Organic Act of 1902 established a territorial government reporting to the United States' Bureau of Insular Affairs. This act provided for a governor-general appointed by the US president and an elected lower house, the Philippine Assembly.