MANILA - More Filipinos favor legalizing divorce in the Philippines, showed a survey by the Catholic Church strongly opposed to the measure.

Out of 1,200 respondents, 39 percent said they "strongly agree" with passing a divorce measure in the Philippines while 13 percent said they "somewhat agree," according to results of the survey by Church-run Radio Veritas.

This is slightly higher than the 35 percent of respondents who said they "strongly disagree" with legalizing divorce and another 13 percent that said they "somewhat disagree."

Results of the Veritas Truth Survey were released Tuesday, a day after the House of Representatives approved a proposed measure legalizing divorce in the Philippines.

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The predominantly Catholic Philippines remains as one of only two states in the world, aside from the Vatican, where divorce is outlawed.

Church leaders have repeatedly expressed opposition to legalizing divorce, arguing that there are already existing provisions for both canonical and civil annulments.

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WOMEN, YOUTH FAVOR DIVORCE MORE

Results of the survey also showed that more women favor legalizing divorce, with 43 percent saying they “strongly agree” versus 34 percent of men who strongly approve of the proposal.

The legalization of divorce is also more appealing to younger people, with 43 percent of those who agree aged between 13 and 20, followed by adults (40 to 60 years old) at 38 percent, young adults (21 to 39 years old) at 34 percent, and the elderly (61 years old and above) at 19 percent.

Filipinos who belong to the higher economic class are also more agreeable to a divorce law with a majority coming from Class B at 62 percent, followed by Class C2 at 55 percent, Class C1 at 48 percent, Class A at 46 percent, Class D at 40 percent, and Class E at 31 percent.

The survey, which has a ±3 percent margin of error, was conducted by the Radio Veritas Research Department from December 2017 to January 2018.

A separate Social Weather Stations survey conducted from March 25 to 28, 2017, and December 8 to 16, 2017 also showed that a majority of Filipinos or 53 percent agree to legalize divorce in the country for irreconcilably separated couples.

• 53% of Pinoys OK with divorce for ‘irreconcilably separated couples’: SWS survey