When inmates exchange wedding vows at Cebu City Jail

Jail officials open the prison cells to allow six inmates to marry their partners in a mass wedding held at the Cebu City Jail on Aug. 17, 2018.

Despite the sweltering heat, Mary Rose Rodriguez was all smiles as officers of the Cebu City Jail placed a veil over her head and tightly secured it with a plastic tiara.

“I’m so excited to get married with someone I love even if he’s in jail and I’m outside,” Mary Rose told Cebu Daily News in Cebuano. The 20 year old was one of six brides who walked down a makeshift aisle in the covered court of Operation Second Chance (OSC) located at the Cebu City Jail compound in Barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City.

Jail personnel and juvenile delinquents from OSC took a break from their usual routine to witness six couples, mostly inmates of the city jail, exchange vows in a mass wedding held last August 17.

The wedding was sponsored by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and the Cebu City Government, through Councilor Dave Tumulak.

 (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)

Mary Rose, a food vendor, married 33-year-old Jiffy Espinosa, one of over 4,000 detainees of the jail and the father of her one year old daughter who was born in January 2017 —just two months before Jiffy was arrested for drug possession that March.

“We really planned to marry someday since I gave birth to our baby, Ella, until he was implicated in a drug possession case,” she said.

“It was really hard after that but I don’t like to think of negative things especially on what will happen to our wedding,” added Mary Rose.

Although difficult, the couple’s love for each other hurdled the distance, concrete walls and chain linked fence towering over the city penitentiary.

According to Mary Rose, she only got to check on Jiffy every Tuesday and Saturday, during the jail’s visiting hours.

“But last July, when I visited him, he told me that he applied to join a mass wedding after the jail administration announced it to them. I was really happy when he told me the good news,” said Mary Rose.

Jiffy and Mary Rose met at a party in her aunt’s house in Barangay Pasil, Cebu City in 2015.

It was ‘love at first sight’, she said.

Getting married

Mary Rose and Jiffy’s wedding was the second to be organized at the city jail this year.

Six Cebu City jail inmates and their partners get married before Fr Creseciano Ubod in a mass wedding on Aug. 17, 2018.

The first was held last April when 13 couples said their “I do’s” during a Mass organized by the city government.

Cebu City Jail warden Supt. Renante Rubio said that when they made the announcement that City Hall was willing to shoulder the cost of the wedding and reception, a lot of inmates wanted to get married.

“But we only allowed a few of them because some couples actually knew each other inside the jail, others through visiting privileges. We prioritized those who had been in a relationship before they were in the jail,” said Rubio.

Rubio added that seeing rare and sacred occasions, such as weddings held inside the city jail, boosted the morale not only of some inmates but also of jail personnel like him.

“I’m very happy to see events like this one because it helps everyone inside the jail, including us officers, on the value of being in touch with your family and your loved ones,” Rubio said.

After the ceremony, a reception was held for the couples which came complete with lechon (roasted pig) and a cake to slice for each couple.

The couples’ guests were invited to attend the Mass and join the humble feast prepared by jail authorities.

For Mirasol and Alvin Limoran, their special day was made even happier by the presence of their four children who greeted them after the ceremony.

The kids were escorted by their grandparents.

Mirasol, 34, has been detained at the jail’s female dormitory since 2010; while Alvin, 36, earned a living for their children by driving passengers on his motorcycle in Barangay Suba, Cebu City.

“I’m just so happy that our prayers for a wedding have been answered despite everything,” said Mirasol who has been Alvin’s sweetheart from high school.