Blind couple Renante Looc and Rosemarie Dimpas were among the 200 pairs who exchanged “I Dos” in one of Pag-IBIG Fund’s
Libreng Kasalan program.
(Editor’s note: The fourth in a series of CDN stories to show that there are indeed certain things that last forever.)
#CDNMAYFOREVER
In her 26 years of working for the Home Development Mutual Fund (more popularly known as Pag-IBIG Fund), no other office experience has left Salve Ceniza with tears of joy and much inspiration than Pag-IBIG’s “Libreng Kasalan” program.
“I cry when they get emotional because I can’t help but be happy for them,” Ceniza told Cebu Daily News of the “Libreng Kasalan sa Pag-IBIG” program, which started six years ago.
“These are couples who were living together for years, had children but are still waiting to be officially declared as husband and wife,” said Ceniza, now Pag-IBIG Fund Mandaue Member Services Branch head.
In 2012, Ceniza witnessed the marriage of a blind couple, Renante Looc and Rosemarie Dimpas, in a ceremony officiated by then Cebu City mayor Michael Rama. Looc and Dimpas exchanged vows together with 200 other couples and danced as husband and wife for the first time.
“It didn’t matter that they were blind. They only had ‘eyes’ for each other as they exchanged rings and uttered their ‘I dos,’” Ceniza recounted.
“These are memorable stories that made me and my colleagues cry because all the preparations were worth it,” she added.
In the same year, Ceniza also met Rowena Montecillo and Julian Rosal Jr., who had been living together for three years with their son.
On the day of the February 14, 2012 mass wedding, Rowena, then pregnant with their second child, was past her due date.
“I noticed her lining up with her partner for the photo booth. I offered her a chair but she declined. She assured me that she was okay. I could tell that she was really excited to have their photo taken,” recalled Ceniza.
Rowena just kept rubbing her belly while whispering to her unborn baby.
“Ayaw sa baby ha. Pahumana sa ang kasal sa imong Papa ug Mama, (Not now baby. Let Papa and Mama finish their wedding),” Rowena was overheard saying.
Throughout the four-hour event lasting from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Rowena bore the pain of the contractions.
And as the love song “She,” the official soundtrack of the movie “Notting Hill,” played in the background, Rowena took her time walking down the aisle with her groom, Julian.
The two exchanged “I Dos,” danced as a couple and ate their first meal as husband and wife with smiles on their faces.
Nobody knew that Rowena was in labor.
The following day, February 15, at 5:00 in the morning, just hours after the couple went home exhausted from their wedding, Rowena gave birth to a six-pound baby girl.
A few days after, Ceniza visited the family in their home in Barangay Umapad, Mandaue City.
“They lived in a 15-square-meter room located in a government-owned lot. There was a single bed and a small cabinet inside the room,” said Ceniza.
“Their ‘I Do’ souvenir cup and wedding portrait were displayed. I could see in her eyes how happy she was that she was officially Mrs. Julian Rosal,” Ceniza recalled.
This coming Tuesday, February 14, 2017, Ceniza will once again witness more than 100 couples exchange vows and utter “I Dos.”
The Pag-IBIG Fund Cebu ceremony will be held at the J Centre Convention Hall in Mandaue City.
For this mass wedding, the agency is spending P400,000 to cover expenses for the reception, marriage fees and wedding rings.
The ceremony, to be officiated by Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing, will be one of several simultaneous mass weddings sponsored by Pag-IBIG Fund for its member-couples across 20 locations nationwide.
Ceniza said 70 percent of the couples who registered had been living together for at least three years while 30 percent are boyfriends-girlfriends who decided to maximize their Pag-IBIG Fund memberships by availing of the free wedding.
A total of 2,000 couples in the Philippines were wed through the program last year.
For Pag-IBIG’s 2017 mass wedding, a house and lot will be given away to a lucky couple, while four pangkabuhayan (livelihood) packages will be picked for winners in Luzon, the National Capital Region (NCR), Visayas and Mindanao.
Each wedding location will also have raffle draws with household appliances as prizes.
“This wedding is a big deal for these couples. They dress up and put on effort to look their best,” said Ceniza.
“Many of them said this is not a mass wedding for them … this is a moment that they share as husband and wife. It is the fulfillment of their dreams,” Ceniza added.
For indeed, the unwed couples have a choice to be married or not; and yet they choose to be —even without the means — through a free ceremony that celebrates a love they feel will last forever.
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