House OKs bill allowing women to retain maiden surname

On the occasion of Women's Month, the House of Representatives passed the bill that will allow married women to retain their maiden surname.

Passed on third and final reading was House Bill (HB) No. 4605, or the proposed Act Providing for the Right of Married Women to Retain their Maiden Surnames, amending for the purpose Article 370 of Republic Act (RA) No. 386, as amended, otherwise known as the New Civil Code (NCC) of the Philippines.

Deputy Speaker and Cebu Rep. Vincent Franco "Duke" Frasco, who presided over plenary session Tuesday, March 21, declared HB No. 4605 as approved on third and final reading after it received 277 affirmative votes during nominal voting.

There were zero negative votes and abstentions, Frasco said.

“Although our Civil Code currently allows three options for identification, we see this bill as a relevant and timely move to prove the commitment of the House of Representatives to promoting equality of men and women before the law,” House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said following the bill's passage.

“It is not enough that our jurisprudence says that a married woman has an option, but not a duty, to use the surname of the husband. It is important that we institutionalize that they can decide to retain both their maiden name and surname,” the Leyte representative added.

The objective of HB No. 4605 is to provide for equality between men and women before the law by allowing married women to retain their maiden surnames.

Under the current version of Article 370 of Title XIII, Book III of

RA No. 386, as amended, a married woman has three options:

Use her maiden first name and surname and add her husband's surname.

Use her maiden first name and her husband's surname.

Use her husband's full name then prefix a word indicating that she is his wife, such as "Mrs."

The proposed Article 370 under HB No. 4605 introduces a fourth option, retaining the maiden first name and surname, in other words, a married woman may choose not to introduce any change to her name.

The bill was approved on second reading last March 14. It was principally authored by Manila Rep. Edward Vera Maceda, Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas, San Juan City Rep. Ysabel Zamora, Leyte Rep. Juliet Marie Veloso-Tuazon, Negros Occidental Rep. Juliet Ferrer, Eastern Samar Rep. Maria Fe Abunda, Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales, Leyte Rep. Lolita Javier, Zamboanga Rep. Mannix Dalipe, and ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Jocelyn Tulfo.

The NCC is a 72-year-old law.