Any bill that will embody the proposal to put an expiration on marriage contract as aired by a women’s group aspiring to have a seat in the House of Representatives would fail because it will not get the support of the majority in the House of Representatives, Speaker Prospero Nograles said Tuesday.

“With so many Catholics in the House of Representatives, (any bill of such kind) would be bound to fail,” he said.

And if it is filed during this Congress, it would die even before landing on the floor for first reading because the House leadership would not support it, Nograles said.

“That’s against my basic Catholic beliefs that marriage is a sacrament and inviolable,” he said.

Muntinlupa Rep. Rozzano Rufino Biazon said that while such bill may eventually exist, it should be strongly be opposed “because it will endanger the integrity of the ties that bind the Philippine society.”

"The Filipino Family is acknowledged as the basic unit of society and it cannot be denied that marriage is the foundation of most Filipino Families. Marriage and families cannot be treated separately and impose policies on one and not consider the other,” he said.

Also, Catholic Church leaders viewed the proposed 10-year expiry on marriage as a grand plan to destroy the family.

‘This is an overall scheme. These are tentacles to a grand plan to really destroy the family,” Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, Media Director of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said.

Quitorio said he is convinced that the proposal had something to do with the controversial Reproductive Health Bill or House Bill 5043 which the Catholic Church has been opposing.

“It’s an overall scheme that has something to do with the RH Bill.. They want to destroy the family. They want to promote bills like divorce because it is not allowed as it will destroy the family,” said Quitorio.

At the Church-run Radio Veritas 846, Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iniguez also echoed the view of Quitorio saying the proposal would not only ruin the Filipino family but also affect the morality of the society.

This was supported by Basilan Bishop Martin Jumoad. “This will be detrimental to our society. We should not pay notice to proposals that are very immoral.”

Short of saying that proposed marriage expiration is unconstitutional, Biazon noted that fact that “the Philippine Constitution guarantees the protection of the family's integrity and states that marriage is an inviolable social institution,”

The proposed expiration of marriage contracts came from a party-list group called 1-ABAA (Ako Babaeng Astig Aasenso)

The group’s main advocacy is “to help women become economically empowered by helping them become entrepreneurs, giving them better employment, providing sources of livelihood, access to capital, and other ways to make women financially independent.”