ILIGAN CITY— Fifty-nine couples exchanged vows Friday (June 14) in a civil mass wedding ceremony organized by the local government unit here as part of the city’s 69th charter day celebration on June 16.
Mayor Celso Regencia, who solemnized the wedding ceremony, said the annual mass wedding aims to legalize the marriage of couples, who have been living together for a minimum of five years.
“Beginning this day, your partnership has been made in the eyes of the law and you will no longer have problems concerning certain documentary requirements when you transact with the government or when your children go to school,” Mayor Regencia told the couples.
Jocelyn and Leonil Santos, both 39 years old, said they have been living together for nine years. They have three children whose birth certificates are registered under Jocelyn’s family name.
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The Santos couple said they have not been able to marry in church or in civil rite because of financial reasons.
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“We have never thought of marrying because the costs are prohibitive. We would rather spend the money for food and for our children’s needs,” Jocelyn said Cebuano.Â
Civil Registrar, Gina Mascariñas said now that the Delos Santoses are married, their children will go through a “legitimation process” that would take only less than a month because the Family Code of the Philippines has already made this easier.
Mascariñas said the couple only need to submit to their office their marriage contract and the children’s birth certificates.
Councilor Ryan Ong, the city council’s committee chairman on Family, advised the couples to “put God at the center of their relationship.” -Divina M. Suson (PNA)
