Divorce is not illegal in the Philippines.
Divorce is almost always illegal, but there are cases where it is legal.
Under certain circumstances where both parties are Muslim, or the husband is Muslim there are options for divorce.
Source: Presidential Decree 1083
http://www.chanrobles.com/presidentialdecreeno1083.htm
The issue as I understand it is that to procure an annulment in the Philippines one has to have a party that is at fault. (There is no divorce allowed by law in the Philippines, except for Muslims under certain circumstances).
Whether both people want to be apart or not (which is not always the case in these annulments) these cases are long and complicated. (I had a friend who went through this process).
As much as I hate to say this, (and not having read TFA) they might be very close with their numbers if (and this is a big if) they're looking at worldwide usage, and not just first world utilization.
Having lived in South America, Africa and Asia (currently residing in the US) I can say that without a doubt that the majority of software (probably around 90% in my opinion) in most of those regions is pirated. I've had to fight, tooth and nail to get my employers to even consider licensing software when needed, that is, when a free alternative wouldn't work.
The main reason for this is simply cost... Take the Philippines for example (because I've lived there more recently)-for a person with a "average" job, above the poverty line (which many people aren't) they'll take home about $300US a month. A legal copy of Windows Vista Home Basic costs $100US ( http://www.villman.com/Category/Software - that's a well known computer store there). A "pirated" version costs at the most $2US, whatever version you want. If you compare that to the person who makes $12US an hour, and takes home $20kUS a year that would be the equivalent of paying around $500US for your copy of Windows. Never mind buying MS Office, or Photoshop. Even if you disregard home use, of all the businesses, schools, internet cafe's, etc. that I've seen I'd still say that over 90% used pirated software-they would likely go under otherwise, as the cost is exorbitant for their market. The only other option besides "piracy" is free software, but that's an entirely separate struggle.
People always talk about the cost of switching from Windows to Linux. Yes, switching does cost a lot for a company (here the Vietnamese government is just the part of a large company). What people usually miss is that outside of the first world those costs are usually much, much lower. This is because of the disparity between wages and license fees for software.
For example, in the US if you were to lose 2 weeks of work from an employee for retraining them you're looking at several thousand dollars in cost-so saving the couple hundred in license fees is all lost. It is not cost effective for most companies in the US to switch from Windows to Linux on the basis of license fees alone. Simple.
Overseas it's a different story. I do not know the particulars for Vietnam, but I have spent several years in the Philippines, and some time in Thailand and Bangladesh.
That couple hundred dollar license fee-it covers a persons monthly salary or more. Yes, you have to hire some extra people to handle the change, the retraining, etc. But you can pay for them all that first year with what you would have spent in license fees, the next year you're saving.
When you add to that all the security benefits, the uptime, stability, etc. It's really a wonder more countries don't take this approach.
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Divorce is not illegal in the Philippines.
Divorce is almost always illegal, but there are cases where it is legal.
Under certain circumstances where both parties are Muslim, or the husband is Muslim there are options for divorce.
Source: Presidential Decree 1083
http://www.chanrobles.com/presidentialdecreeno1083.htm
The issue as I understand it is that to procure an annulment in the Philippines one has to have a party that is at fault. (There is no divorce allowed by law in the Philippines, except for Muslims under certain circumstances). Whether both people want to be apart or not (which is not always the case in these annulments) these cases are long and complicated. (I had a friend who went through this process).
As much as I hate to say this, (and not having read TFA) they might be very close with their numbers if (and this is a big if) they're looking at worldwide usage, and not just first world utilization.
Having lived in South America, Africa and Asia (currently residing in the US) I can say that without a doubt that the majority of software (probably around 90% in my opinion) in most of those regions is pirated. I've had to fight, tooth and nail to get my employers to even consider licensing software when needed, that is, when a free alternative wouldn't work.
The main reason for this is simply cost... Take the Philippines for example (because I've lived there more recently)-for a person with a "average" job, above the poverty line (which many people aren't) they'll take home about $300US a month. A legal copy of Windows Vista Home Basic costs $100US ( http://www.villman.com/Category/Software - that's a well known computer store there). A "pirated" version costs at the most $2US, whatever version you want. If you compare that to the person who makes $12US an hour, and takes home $20kUS a year that would be the equivalent of paying around $500US for your copy of Windows. Never mind buying MS Office, or Photoshop. Even if you disregard home use, of all the businesses, schools, internet cafe's, etc. that I've seen I'd still say that over 90% used pirated software-they would likely go under otherwise, as the cost is exorbitant for their market. The only other option besides "piracy" is free software, but that's an entirely separate struggle.
People always talk about the cost of switching from Windows to Linux. Yes, switching does cost a lot for a company (here the Vietnamese government is just the part of a large company). What people usually miss is that outside of the first world those costs are usually much, much lower. This is because of the disparity between wages and license fees for software. For example, in the US if you were to lose 2 weeks of work from an employee for retraining them you're looking at several thousand dollars in cost-so saving the couple hundred in license fees is all lost. It is not cost effective for most companies in the US to switch from Windows to Linux on the basis of license fees alone. Simple. Overseas it's a different story. I do not know the particulars for Vietnam, but I have spent several years in the Philippines, and some time in Thailand and Bangladesh. That couple hundred dollar license fee-it covers a persons monthly salary or more. Yes, you have to hire some extra people to handle the change, the retraining, etc. But you can pay for them all that first year with what you would have spent in license fees, the next year you're saving. When you add to that all the security benefits, the uptime, stability, etc. It's really a wonder more countries don't take this approach.