A house bill allowing married women to retain their maiden surnames after marriage was approved on the second reading in the House of Representatives.
House Bill (HB) No.4605, also known as the proposed Act granting married women the right to keep their maiden surnames and modifying Republic Act (RA) No.386, as amended, also known as the New Civil Code of the Philippines is few steps away from becoming a law.
This makes it more likely that the bill will pass on its third and final reading the following week, or right before Congress takes its regular summer recess.
A simple voice vote (yes/no) in the plenary resulted in Bill No. 4605 being declared passed on second reading, according to Deputy Speaker and Representative for Antipolo City’s first district Roberto Puno. The votes cast in favor, or “ayes,” prevailed according to Philippine Star.
The purpose of the bill is to guarantee gender equality before the law by enabling married women to keep their maiden surnames.
As stated in RA No.386, a married woman may use her maiden first name and surname and add her husband’s surname; her maiden first name and her husband’s surname; or her husband’s full name but prefixing a word indicating that she is his wife such as “Mrs.”
The Civil Code further specifies that children born as a consequence of a marriage would adopt both their parents’ last names and the mother’s middle name (maiden surname). In order to demonstrate this, let’s use the example of a married couple named Maria Josefa Lopez Maego-Luansing and Juan Candido Luansing. One daughter with the given name Juliana will be named Juliana Maego Luansing.
In cased you missed it, as Philippine law does not mandate that women adopt their husband’s surname upon marriage, the House of Representatives approved a bill allowing women to retain their maiden names in December 2021. This is frequently done for professional reasons since a lady might want to maintain her name with her clientele or target market.
This was House Bill (HB) 10459. The “New Civil Code of the Philippines,” or Republic Act 386, Article 370, is amended by this bill. This proposal has received the backing and unanimous approval of 227 congressmen.
Source: PhilStar via Pilipino Star Digital Ngayon