Tuesday, July 01, 2008 40 couples join mass wedding By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
WHEN they first met six years ago, Cebu City Hall workers Esterlita Tabares and Teofilo Miñoza did not think they would have an altar date one day. They had just lost their spouses that time.
Yesterday, they were the oldest among 41 couples who exchanged wedding vows and asked for blessings amid the many hardships that couples face these days.
Tabares, 53, and Miñoza, 47, met at the City Government’s Department of Public Services (DPS) office, where they are both employees.
They have been living together for more than two years already but because of financial difficulties, a wedding did not figure into their plans.
“Tiguwang na sad ta ug gusto na sad gyud ko nga naa na koy kapares sa kinabuhi ug naay blessing sa Ginoo. Mag-agad lang ta sa iyang plano para namo pero mahimutang lang ming duha, okay na ko ana (We’re old now and I want a partnership in marriage. We’ll just have to rely on God’s plans for us),” said Miñoza.
The wedding was a happy occasion for the couple, attended by Tabares’ two children and her grandchildren, whom Miñoza considers as his own.
Their boss, DPS Chief Dionisio Gualiza, other City Hall department heads and some city councilors stood as their principal sponsors while the staff of the Cebu City Women’s Commission played the role of brides’ maids and grooms’ men.
City-sponsored
The City shouldered all the expenses for the wedding ceremony held at the St. Joseph the Patriarch parish church in Barangay Mabolo and the reception at the Cebu City Coliseum.
“We believe that if their union has the blessings of the church, they will become true Christian families and a Christian family is a happy family and it makes a happy city. We also want to help the indigents legalize their union,” said Councilor Lea Ouano-Japson, chairperson of the City Council committee on family and women.
Not even the increasing prices of fuel, rice and other basic commodities kept Jackylyn Doller, 19, and Crestorey Toñacao, 22, from getting married.
They know that financial difficulties could spoil marriages and result in separation, but now that their union has been
solemnized, they believe things will be easier now.
The Toñacao couple, who have been living together for four years, was the youngest couple who benefitted from the mass wedding.
Blessed
“Nakasabot mi sa among gisudlan ug kahibawo sad mi sa mga posible na mahitabo. Basta naa lang namo ang Ginoo, makaya ra gyud ang problema.
Ug wala na mi makaon, nganong dili man pangitaan ug paagi, di ba (We know what we are getting into. As long as we have God with us, we will survive. If we don’t have anything to eat, we can always find ways)?” said Doller.
She relies on her husband’s earnings as a truck driver to feed their two children.
In his homily yesterday, Msgr. Rommel Kintanar urged the couples to help each other and listen to each other to make their union last and for it to withstand any problems.
“Magtinabangay gyud unta ug mag-estoryahanay ang tanang bana ug asawa hangtod sila mahimong perfect combination or perfect couple... Angay gyud na maghiusa kamo sa inyong kaminyoon (Couples should strive to be perfect),” he said. (LCR)
