Sixty couples received their Valentine’s Day gift from the local government unit here on February 14 by means of a free wedding.
Mayor Catalina Cabrera presided over the civil mass wedding at the public plaza in Barangay Sta. Monica right after the celebration of a Catholic mass.
Cabrera, thru the Municipal Civil Registrar (MCR) sponsored the local civil marriage registration, wedding rings and even the catered wedding reception.
Partners Ronaldo Taroy, 47 years old, and Myra Sierva, 45, were among those that tied the knot in the ceremonies. They already have 6 children.
Taroy said they did not have the money to spend for their wedding.
Taroy’s story was only one among the many couples who raised their respective families out of wedlock due to financial constraints.
It was the same story that Cabrera repeatedly encounters at the MCR, the room just next to her office at the municipal hall.
“The problem does not end with the couple’s civil documents. Their children’s records are also in disarray because their parents are not wed,” Cabrera said.
The couples were also given free wedding cakes and a bag of five-kilogram rice to bring home to their families.
The wedding is the first Valentine Day mass wedding under Cabrera’s fresh mandate as municipal mayor.
“I want to make this as one of my regular projects thru the help the MCR and Philippine Statistics Authority,” Cabrera said.