The Family

The Family

(http://www.victorialaw.ca/practice/family)

 

A.      Definition of Family & Marriage (Philippine Constitution and Family Code of the Philippines)

The Philippine Constitution recognizes that the basic foundation of the Filipino nation is the Filipino family. Hence, the State shall strengthen its solidarity and promote its total development, particularly defending the following:

1.       Marriage as an inviolable social institution;

2.       Rights of spouses to found a family;

3.       Right of children to assistance (such as proper care, nutrition, neglect, abuse, cruelty, exploitation, etc.);

4.       Right of a family to family living wage and income; and

5.       Rights of families or family associations to participate in planning and policies/programs implementation.

And as stated by the Philippine Family Code, family relations are governed by law and no custom, practice or agreement destructive of the family shall be recognized or given effect.

Marriage is a special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman entered into in accordance with law for the establishment of conjugal and family life.

Reflection:

        In the Book of Genesis of the Bible, when God created man, He also created woman out of the rib of man to become man’s wife. Man shall leave his father and mother and join his wife, and they shall become one flesh. So from the spiritual view alone, we can already infer that God intended humans to form their own family and multiply. Similarly, the Philippine, as a State, also recognizes that the basic foundation of the Philippine nation or society is family.

        Formation of a family begins with the union of a man and a woman called marriage. Marriage is sacred. Both man and woman must be capable and responsible enough before marrying. It should start from knowing each other well and all the way to fully understanding and accepting each other’s condition, including status in life, weaknesses and differences. Once this process is by-passed, the tendency is a situation resulting to failure of marriage and broken family which ultimately leads to broken nation/society. We see this phenomenon happening in our society every now and then. Family is broken because of incompatibilities between couples. Even our respected leaders and idolized figures in the society experience this. Often, children are the ones suffering the most.

As specified by the Philippine Constitution, the State is responsible for promoting a family’s total development and strengthening the solidarity of a family. Yes, but I personally believe that the primary responsible for these are the husbands and wives themselves, while the State is just secondarily responsible. Nonetheless, no matter how the government does its best to protect the rights of spouses, children, family and family associations, there seems to be a lot of improvements still needed to ensure adequate assistance are provided to children and living wage or income are received by families. We often hear news about child exploitation, abandonment, abuse and malnutrition. It appears that the efforts of government are not enough to control these social problems. But we cannot put the blame to the government alone. We should also remember that the root cause of these problems often originate from irresponsible parents.

(http://www.perryscale.com/various-scales.htm)

 

B.      Rights and Obligations of Between Husband and Wife

 

Title III of the Philippine Family Code defines the rights and obligations between a husband and a wife. It is stated there that the husband and wife are obliged to live together, observe mutual love, respect and fidelity, and render mutual help and support. Given this, both spouses have the right and duty to manage household and are jointly responsible for the support of the family.

Reflection:

Although the law clearly states the rights and obligations between a husband and a wife, ironically there are a lot of couples in our society who don’t live together, who cheat each other and who live independently of each other’s help and support. Some of them are well known in our society, and sad to say, they are even being idolized by the people, instead of being condemned or held liable for their actions. There are also cases where responsibilities are solely shouldered by one of the spouses. Families are abandoned either by the mother or the father, resulting to single parent scenario.

 

 (http://owen.ca.uky.edu/Scattering_Kindness)

 

C.      Parental Authority

 

Title IX of the Philippine Family Code talks about parental authority. Natural rights and duty of parents over the person and property of their unemancipated children are the basis of parental authority and shall include the caring for and rearing for civic consciousness, efficiency and development of children moral, mental and physical character and well-being. The father and the mother shall jointly exercise parental authority over the persons of their common children, and in case of disagreement, the father’s decision shall prevail. In return, children are shall always observe respect and reverence towards their parents and obey them. Parents have the rights and duties, among others, to support, educate, give love, advice, provide moral and spiritual guidance, inculcate values, demand respect and impose discipline.

Reflection:

Similarly, in the Bible, God told Eve that her desire will be for her husband, Adam, and Adam will rule over Eve. That’s why in our society and even in our law, the husband’s decision shall ultimately prevail over that of the wife in case of disagreement in parental authority. In the Philippine law, the parents are expected to provide all the needs of the children from physiological, safety, intellectual, emotional up to moral and spiritual needs. These are the responsibilities of the parents from birth of the children up to the time that children are emancipated. It is from the parents that children first learn about values. In return, the parents have the authority over their children to command respect, obedience and discipline. Given this, one can infer that it is hard to become parents because the responsibilities attached are seriously heavy, and becoming parents demands both husband and wife to be selfless for the sake of their children.

Overall Reflection:

Having own family and being a parent is a lifelong endeavor of every human. It entails great duties and responsibilities, whether natural or provided by law. It is through the union of a husband and wife that another generation is born and nurtured, and the cycle just continues to go on, so it is critical that the foundation of a family must be strong enough to withstand various challenges. Both husband and wife must devote time, energy, resources and lives to form a strong family foundation. But unfortunately, many in the society don’t realize that. Many simply take marriage lightly without understanding what family building is all about. They don’t practice family planning. Often, they are not prepared nor ready to handle responsibilities (either psychological or financially unprepared). Or worse, some just satisfy their sexual desires even outside of wedlock which results to unwanted pregnancies that eventually leads to poverty and later on problem of the entire society. In the absence of parental guidance, children don’t fully learn what is right from wrong, which becomes their cause to commit indecent or sometimes felonious acts. Sometimes, due to lack of education, the parents themselves do not know what is right and wrong. Then, the cycle continues, just like a domino effect. So the best way to solve the problem of the society is, perhaps, to start the assessment from our own families. If we see gaps in the responsibilities being either the husband, wife or children, let’s start filling-in those gaps to avoid bigger problems in the future that may eventually become part of our nation/society’s problem. That way, we can be good example to others and influence them to live the same way that we do. On the part of the government, I think the government should focus on educating people because lack of proper education is one of the perennial problems of the society that contributes to family failures.

 

 References:

1.       Texts

        http://laws.chanrobles.com/otherlaws/1_otherlaws.php?id=1

       http://www.chanrobles.com/executiveorders/1987/executiveorderno209-1987.html#.U6-aTLtZqW8

 

2.    Images 

        http://www.victorialaw.ca/practice/family

       http://www.perryscale.com/various-scales.htm

        http://owen.ca.uky.edu/Scattering_Kindness