The House of Representatives passed on its second reading a bill that will explicitly allow women to retain their maiden or unmarried names even after marriage.
Should it be passed into law, House Bill 4605 would amend the New Civil Code of the Philippines explicitly adding one’s maiden name as an option for identification.
Under the current law, women have three options when it comes to their names: her maiden name and surname, and her husband’s surname; her maiden first name and her husband’s last name; and taking on her husband’s full name with a prefix such as Mrs.
In the Philippines, the more common option is for women to drop their surnames altogether and adopt their husbands’ last names.
That said, married women are allowed to retain their maiden names under the present law, as clarified by human rights lawyer and former senatorial candidate Chel Diokno in a TikTok video.
“The Supreme Court explained in a case that a woman taking her husband’s surname is only an option, not an obligation. This means she can retain her maiden name,” Diokno says in Filipino.
Diokno was referring to a decision made by the Supreme Court in a 2010 case involving a woman’s petition to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs requesting she be able to revert back to the use of her maiden name in a replacement passport. In that decision the court wrote:
“Clearly, a married woman has an option, but not a duty, to use the surname of the husband in any of the ways provided by Article 370 of the Civil Code. She is therefore allowed to use not only any of the three names provided in Article 370, but also her maiden name upon marriage.
She is not prohibited from continuously using her maiden name once she is married because when a woman marries, she does not change her name but only her civil status. Further, this interpretation is in consonance with the principle that surnames indicate descent.”
However, the court said that a married woman who has adopted her husband’s name in a passport can no longer revert to her maiden name except in instances of a husband’s death, annulment, or divorce.
Despite the law allowing for this option, institutions such as banks and government agencies are apparently unaware of this rule, with several stories online of being turned away by these institutions upon refusal to carry their husbands’ last names.
“Attorney [Diokno], I was informed that in government documents, when you declare you’re married, your ID and name should take your husband’s last name,” one follower commented on Diokno’s TikTok video.
“That’s not right. The Philippine Commission on Women released a memo reminding all government offices to accept married women’s maiden names,” he wrote back.
“So many Filipinos are ignorant of the law. I tried to do the first option when I renewed my passport, but the agent at the Department of Foreign Affairs didn’t accept it,” another said.
The bill, authored by Edward Vera Perez of Manila, Arlene Brosas of Gabriela party-list, Ysabel Zamora of San Juan City, and Anna Veloso-Tuazon of Leyte, would make this right more explicit.
For it to become law, however, the bill will have to pass its third reading at the lower House and be transmitted to the Senate for further approval.
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