Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The Senate conducted its first hearing on proposals to finally legalize divorce in the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country which stands with the Vatican as the only states without divorce.

Government officials, women’s, children’s and religious groups, children’s groups, health professionals, and experts from the academe attended the hearing on Tuesday.

Aside from the bills of Senators Risa Hontiveros and Pia Cayetano to institute absolute divorce in the Philippines, the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality is also set to tackle a proposal to recognize church-decreed annulments under law.

The two divorce bills in the Senate propose a six-month cooling off period after couples file a petition for absolute divorce “as a final attempt of reconciling the concerned spouses.”

Some of the grounds for divorce under those proposals are physical violence, grossly abusive conduct, drug addiction, habitual alcoholism, chronic gambling, homosexuality, bigamous marriage and marital infidelity.

Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III has said that senators are unsure about divorce, but may be willing to pass a bill allowing for the “dissolution of marriage.”

But Cayetano, whose divorce bill also pushes for the dissolution of marriage, has explained that there is no difference between the two measures.

Some senators are concerned that the passage of a divorce law in the country will pave the way for “Las Vegas-style” breakups, where divorces can be obtained in as little as one week, provided that one of the spouses have resided in or moved to the state of Nevada for at least six weeks.

The House of Representatives passed a divorce bill in the 17th Congress but the measure collected dust in the Senate.

Women’s rights advocates have been pushing for a divorce law in the Philippines, arguing that annulment — which declares that a marriage is void from the start — is too lengthy and expensive.

The Philippine Catholic Church firmly opposes the measure, calling it “anti-marriage and anti-family.”

The catechism of the Catholic Church considers divorce a “grave offense” against natural law as “it claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other ‘till death.” It also considers it “immoral” as it “introduces disorder into the family and into society.”

However, Filipinos are increasingly in favor of divorce, with a 2017 survey showing that half of adult Filipinos believe that the measure should be legalized. Support for the measure is strongest among Catholics.

Lawmakers have proposed that instead of instituting divorce, they can just make annulment easier and cheaper. Among those measures are to recognize church-decreed annulments to be as good as court-obtained annulments.

But the process of church annulment can also take years. In the Catholic Church, for example, married couples need to go to a diocesan tribunal where the bishop stands as a judge.

President Rodrigo Duterte has aired his opposition to divorce, saying that children will suffer from it. He later cited the opposition of his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, to the measure as the reason for his stance.

Dutere's marriage to his first wife, with whom he has three children, has been annulled. He and his partner, Honeylet Avanceña, have a teenage daughter.