Friday, June 13, 2008 American knew I was male: ‘bride’ from Cebu
AN AMERICAN national not only knew he was marrying a Filipino man, but had promised to pay for his sex change operation, the “bride” said in a televised interview yesterday.
They were planning to have the surgery in Thailand, where they would then marry again.
Until last year, his American lover kept sending him e-mail messages nearly every week, along with some cash, Lou Vincent Suarez told GMA 7’s “Balitang Bisdak” news team.
That’s why, Suarez said, he was stunned when he learned last week that the American had filed for annulment, claiming he had no idea until the wedding night that he had married another man.
The American natio-nal’s name is being withheld upon his Cebu-based lawyer’s request. Suarez and his “husband” met on a dating website in April 2006.
Two months later, when the American came to Cebu, Suarez said he then told the man about his real sex. That didn’t stop the American from marrying him anyway, Suarez added.
They were married on June 27, 2006.
In his petition, the American said it was with “shock and horror” that he realized, on their wedding night, that he had married a man.
But Suarez said yesterday he surfaced to emphasize that he neither lied to nor tricked his American partner. “Gusto lang nako mahibaw-an sa publiko nga wa ko namakak (I want the public to know I did not lie to him),” he told the TV crew.
The American national’s lawyer said that whether the Filipino was upfront about his sexual orientation is no longer the issue.
“That’s his statement. It’s up to him to prove it in court,” lawyer Anna Fionah Bojos told Sun.Star Cebu in a mobile phone interview last night. “According to Philippine laws, a marriage between two men is not valid.” (REV/JGA)
