Courtship and Mate Selection
Courtship is a social process engaged in by two individuals.
It is a form of behavior seeking to win the consent of another for marriage. It is progressive commitment leading to a
succession of events towards the development of stable interpersonal
relationship. Most significant is the development of love and affection
Ø Courtship
is a process which undergoes various stages:
a. Dating-getting acquainted
b. Going
steady – practice of dating one person exclusively
c. Private
understanding- open declaration of each other’s desire for marriage
d. Engagement
– public announcement of love, involving parents, relatives and friends
What is Marriage?
Marriage is another
human construction to insure the continuity of the family and the eventual
perpetuation of the human specie. It involves a certain behavioral processes
and legal or religious practices which become patterned and organized into the system of matrimony. Marriage is
systematized and institutionalized for the purpose of begetting and rearing
children and the regulation of sexual behavior. It 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. ( The New Family Code of the Philippines)
Marriage is socially recognized union between two or more
individuals that typically involves sexual and economic rights and duties (
Light and Keller). It is a social and
legal norm by which the relationship of the two sexes is controlled and
restricted by society.
Two views of marriage:
1. Legal point of view that posits that marriage is a
contract.
As a
contract, it applies to a man and a woman who agree to live together as husband
and wife and to fulfill to each other their corresponding duties and
obligations. It is permanent, in contrast to other, ordinary contracts. Once
the contract of marriage is valid, the status of being married is created
between the parties. The law provides penal and civic sanctions, like criminal
action, for adultery or concubinage. The law also allows legal separation,
annulment or action for support. Any
party whose rights as stipulated in the contract have been violated can file a
petition in court for the redress of his or her grievances.
2. The religious point of view posits that marriage
is a sacrament.
As a sacrament, it is an
inviolable bond between a man and a
woman who take each other as husband and wife and that only death can separate
the spouses. “What God has put
together let no man put asunder”
IMPORTANT LEGAL MATTERS ON MARRIAGE:
a. Essential
Requisites For Marriage
The Family Code of
the Philippines provides in Art. 2 : No marriage shall be valid, unless these
essential requisites are present:
1. legal capacity of the contracting parties
(18 yrs. or upwards), who must be a male and a female.
2. Consent freely given in the presence of the
solemnizing officer.
b. Formal Requisites of Marriage:
1.
Authority of the solemnizing officer;
2. A
valid marriage license except in cases provided in chapter 2 of this title; and
3. A marriage ceremony which takes
place with the appearance of the contracting parties before the solemnizing
officer and their personal declaration that they take each other as husband and
wife In the presence of
not less than two witnesses of legal age:
c. Annulment of Marriage
Annulment refers to the
legal process of filing a petition in
the appropriate court seeking a judicial declaration of making a marriage null
and void ab initio or from the beginning
as if no marriage took place. The legal
effect, if petition, is granted is that the couple can re-marry.
Grounds for
Annulment
1. One
of the contracting parties is 18 yrs. of age or over but below 21 and without parental consent;
2. Either party was of unsound mind;
3. Consent of either party was obtained by fraud,
force or intimidation;
4. Either party was physically
incapable of consummating the marriage
with the other;
5. Either party was afflicted with
a sexually transmissible disease found to be serious and incurable.
d. Legal Separation
Refers to the legal process of
filing a petition in the appropriate court seeking a judicial declaration of legal
separation for married couples. The legal effect, if petition is granted, is
that the couple are separated from bed and board but they cannot remarry.
Grounds for Legal
Separation
1.
Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against the
petitioner, a common child, or a
child of the petitioner;
2. Physical violence or moral pressure to
compel the petitioner to change religion or political affiliation;
3. Attempt of respondent to corrupt
or induce the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner, to
engage in prostitution, or connivance in such corruption or inducement.
4. final judgment sentencing the
respondent to imprisonment of more than six years, even if pardoned;
5. Drug addiction or habitual
alcoholism of the respondent;
6. Lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent;
7.
Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent
bigamous marriage, whether in
the Philippines or abroad.
8. Sexual infidelity or perversion;
9.
Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner; or
10. Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for
more than one year.
