TIGAON, CAMARINES SUR -- ABOUT FIFTY COUPLES, ages 18 to 40 years of age will be participants in a mass wedding rites dubbed as, "Grand Kasalan 2009" part of a 10-day festivity of the Sta Clara "devotional dancing" on August 11 to 12 this year.
But Tigaon Municipal Civil Registrar, Gemma B. Bongulto, said that the mass wedding is not just being held as part of the town's festivities, but to address the alarming number of children being born from unwed parents.
Bongulto said that Tigaon Mayor Arnie B. Fuentebella had noticed that with the estimated 50,000 population of the town, an increasing number of "illegitimate-children" were shown in birth registrations, at the rate of 30% to 40% of newly born infants in this town in 2008.
The Civil Registrar noted that with the passing of a new Republic Act 9255 which legitimize children though their parents are not legally wed, many couples in rural areas have neglected marriage as a legal bonding for common husbands and wives.
Meanwhile many couples in the rural areas of Camarines Sur are in "live-in" relationships and have neglected marriage rites due to poverty, according to reports of many Civil Registrar officers.
Bongulto also said that many rural couples who are on a "live-in" status are unable to afford the expenses of traditional marriage receptions. "They get married, when they can already afford it," Bongulto added.
Moreover, civil registrars in other towns have also a campaigned for unwed couples to get married in mass weddings, where the LGUs and the parish prepare the wedding reception, and the actual marriage rites. (SONNY SALES)