(via Agence France-Presse) Marriage is losing its luster for many in the Philippines, with an increasing number of couples starting families out of wedlock, the government census office said on Friday.

More than 37 percent of the 1.78 million babies born in Asia’s Roman Catholic outpost in 2008 had unmarried mothers, it said in a statement, citing results of the latest population census.

This was 12.5 percent higher than the previous year, and compared with a 2.0 percent increase for all births, the census office said.

A growing number of Filipinos now treat marriage as an option, rather than a requirement, for starting families, said Nene Baligad, a member of a unit of the National Statistics Office that licenses people who officiate weddings.

“Nowadays, some couples just live in and only get married after having four or five children,” she told AFP.

“You can’t really say it’s for practical reasons, since you can be married on the cheap. It’s more like, we Filipinos tend to follow what is in fashion.”

Eight out of 10 Filipinos are Catholic, and the Philippines is one of only three territories in the world, along with Malta and the Vatican, where divorce remains illegal.

However the census showed that many couples were defying the nation’s powerful Catholic bishops by not only on having babies out of wedlock, but also by shunning church weddings.

Marriages either solemnized by the church or by government officials fell 0.7 percent to 486,514 in 2008, according to the census.

Just over a third of couples were married in Catholic ceremonies, while four in 10 chose civil rites officiated by a person licensed by the census office.

Manila couple Alvin Ruiz, 24, and his girlfriend, Joann Lopez, told AFP as they visited the Manila Zoo that they started living in together four years ago and now had a three-year-old son.

“Instead of spending for a wedding, we used the money to buy infant milk,” said Ruiz, who earns a living by buying used cooking oil from restaurants then selling them to companies that turn them into fuel for motor vehicles. [source]

 
(photo source: hundredislands.ph)

(via Phil. STAR) Two couples who long dreamed of having an island wedding will finally fulfill their wish when they renew their marriage vows in an underwater wedding today at the  Hundred Islands National Park.Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza, who will officiate the wedding, told The STAR that the wedding will be held inside a cave at the Cuenco Island, about 15 minutes away by boat from Lucap Wharf, the jump-off point to the Hundred Islands.

The couples were Jayson and Myra Llavore and Ricky and Geraldine Joachon, both from Manila. They decided to renew their marriage vows “before God’s majestic natural beauty through the clear waters of the Hundred Islands,” according to the wedding organizer, Winston Santiago.

These couples, however, were not dressed in the usual wedding attire but in their scuba diving gear.

Braganza, himself a scuba diver, said this will be the second time he officiated an underwater civil wedding. Last Valentine’s Day, a couple from Manila also came here for their underground wedding held in another venue at the Hundred Islands, Old Scout Island.

Braganza said during the rites, there was a waterproof small board where their vows were inscribed and a waterproof pen for their signatures where the couples expressed their marriage vows using sign language.

Their principal sponsor was Vice Mayor Cesar Manzano.

“But of course, the real marriage certificate was signed by the bride and groom and their ninong inland,” the mayor said.

The ceremonies will take about an hour, he said.

Aside from the two couples, another couple, already senior citizens and balikbayan, had their renewal of marriage vows in a beach wedding for their more than 40 years of blissful marital life also at the island.

Braganza said this pre-Valentine’s Day wedding is part of their continuing efforts to showcase the beautiful Hundred Islands managed by the city government as a scuba diving haven and in the future, as the country’s underwater wedding capital for scuba diving enthusiasts.

“We hope that the underwater wedding in Hundred Islands would snowball and become a tradition for couples to come here every Valentine’s Day for this unforgettable experience,” Santiago said.

Mike Sison, city tourism officer, in a separate interview said the guests will partake of a special breakfast as a reception for the three weddings featuring Alaminos’ best-like longganisa, parad (grilled spare ribs), grilled boneless bangus, binongey (glutinous rice cooked inside a piece of bamboo) and local fruits.

Braganza had been holding a sunset civil mass wedding for the past seven years for couples who are already living together without getting married at the Lucap Wharf.

This year, 95 couples form part of the Valentine’s Day civil wedding sponsored by the city government at 3 p.m. today at the Don Leopoldo Sison Auditorium here because of the ongoing construction at the wharf.

Although same sex marriage is not legal and binding here in the Philippines, it is allowed and recognized in some parts of the world, like in the case of California, USA.

Filipino wedding photographer Newin Uy recently had an engagement session in the States (prenup pictorial as it is popularly known here) with a gay Asian American couple.

When asked by a fellow photographer how it felt taking on such a project, Nel said it felt exactly like shooting a heterosexual couple.  He added, “as long as they are in love, parang you wont think of a difference naman.”  He couldn’t have put it any simpler.

See the rest of the images from the pictorial (well, maybe not for the ultra moralists and homophobes). (more…)

(via PhilStar.com) In his first categorical statement regarding marital relationships, President Aquino – a 50-year-old bachelor – declared yesterday that he favors legal separation over divorce, which he said is a “no-no.”

“My own personal position at this point is that a study will have to be made. Divorce is a no-no, but in legal separation, that will be very, very stringent… the couple must pass through the eye of a needle,” he told Palace reporters in a chance interview.

Speaking to reporters at the sidelines of a motor show in Pasay City, P-Noy reiterated that the legal separation process should make sure that differences are indeed irreconcilable.

“We really have to ascertain that they really have irreconcilable differences,” he said.

“But at the end of the day, they are allowed to re-marry. We have legal separation today (but they) can’t marry. Kawawa naman yung mga nagkamali (Pity those who made a mistake),” he added.

“Definitely I cannot support something like what they are doing in Las Vegas, where you get married in the morning and you’ll get divorced in the afternoon,” he said.

“But I do recognize that there are unions that were wrong that no matter what interventions are done, no matter what counseling are done, they really cannot stay together,” Mr. Aquino said.

The President refused to make any comment, however, with regard to the nullity of marriage his youngest sister Kris Aquino filed against her husband James Yap, when asked whether the Office of the Solicitor General would oppose this.

It is the policy of the state to oppose the sanctity of marriage, and it is the OSG - which is under the executive department - that exercises jurisdiction in such petitions. Mr. Aquino has appointed Joel Cadiz, a supporter, as solicitor general.

“I appointed the OSG and if I make an opinion, the OSG might be guided by my opinion and that will be a disservice to the person,” he justified. “Sorry but I will look into that, because what I studied the other day was divorce.”

“And it falls to my sister. Again if I say any opinion it might influence the workings of the court, the fiscal etc. I am duty bound not to comment on this,” he said.

Women’s group Gabriela has refiled in the House of Representatives its controversial bill to legalize divorce in the country.

Representatives Luzviminda Ilagan and Emerenciana de Jesus stressed legalizing divorce would give “married couples in irreparable marriages another legal remedy that they can resort to in addition to the country’s existing laws on legal separation and annulment.”

They said a divorce law could help put an end to domestic violence that is still prevalent among married Filipino couples. The Philippines is one of only two countries in the world (excluding the Vatican) that has not legalized divorce.

“For women in abusive marital relationships, the need for a divorce law is real. It is high time that we give Filipino couples, especially the women, this option,” said Ilagan and De Jesus in the bill’s explanatory note.

The measure, now renamed House Bill 1799 (An Act Introducing Divorce in the Philippines), lists down five grounds for the filing of a petition for divorce:

1.  Petitioner has been separated de facto (in fact) from his or her spouse for at least five years at the time of the filing of the petition and reconciliation is highly improbable;
2. Petitioner has been legally separated from his or her spouse for at least two years at the time of the filing of the petition and reconciliation is highly improbable;
3. When the spouses suffer from irreconcilable differences that have caused the irreparable breakdown of the marriage;
4. When one or both spouses are psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential marital obligations;
5. Any of the grounds for legal separation that caused the irreparable breakdown of the marriage.

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related articles:

• Gabriela hits Aquino on divorce; it’s not Las Vegas-style (Inquirer.net)
• Gabriela: Abused wives need divorce law (ABS-CBNnews.com)

 
(photo courtesy of Oly Ruiz of Metro Photo)

Well, you’re not really invited, but you might as well feel like you were there merely by watching this onsite video.

Fact is, this is one of the few times an SDE (same-day edit) captured ample live audio snippets where viewers get a glimpse of the personality of the couple.  Their sense of humor shines through every clip in a familair Pinoy candor. To me, it felt like they were somebody I know personally.  The ceremony presided by a judge in Makati City Hall felt very relaxed, a refreshing departure from the ’sobfest’ we typically expect in a solemn church ceremony.

I know this is not a typical ‘get-it-over-and-done-with’ kinda civil wedding.  But who ever said that a civil ceremony should be plain non-event?

I’ve been told the couple wore a Randy Ortiz during the ceremony, after which, the bride slipped into a Paul Cabral creation in time for their Blue Leaf reception.  Add the fact that they got Jason Magbanua to do their video speaks that this is no ordinary civil ceremony.  Despite these, the video didn’t come off as trying to show off; on the contrary, it felt very spontaneous and unrestrained.  Unpretentious is the word.

Props to David & Jorene for proving that a simple civil wedding ceremony can be equally beautiful!