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[av_heading heading=’ RAMBLINGS OF THE UNMARRIED | Wedding ritual’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY GORDON Q. GUILLERGAN
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Saturday, June 24, 2017
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“The real act of marriage takes place in the heart, not in the ballroom or church or synagogue. It’s a choice you make – not just on your wedding day, but over and over again – and that choice is reflected in the way you treat your husband or wife.” – Barbara De Angelis
MANY of us as kids would play pretend, and often our common pretend game is kasal-kasalan. We would re-create wedding rituals and have our pretend brides wear floral crowns and use bath towels as veils.
Did you know that in our country there are still tribes whose wedding rituals are taken as valid marriage even in the absence of a marriage license?
One question was posted and answered by Atty. Ariel R. Mamaňgun of LAGMALAW pertaining to a woman who fell in love with a man from an ethnic tribe. They got married under their traditional customs and rites. She asked if they still need to get married again in front of a solemnizing officer.
According to Atty. Mamaňgun, under Article 33 of the Family Code of the Philippines marriages among members of the ethnic cultural communities may be performed validly without the necessity of a marriage license, provided that they are solemnized in accordance with their customs, rites or practices.
Further, the need for one of the spouses to be a member of such tribe is needed. Therefore, one cannot just go to Benguet and be married by their marriage ritual and claim validity over the same. The solemnizing officer has no authority to solemnize marriage of those who are not a member of their tribe or religion. Article 7 (2) of the Family Code expressly states that while a priest, rabbi, imam or minister of any church or religious sect are allowed to solemnize marriages, such officer must be “duly authorized by his church or religious sect and registered with the civil registrar general, acting within the limits of the written authority granted by his church or religious sect, and provided that at least one of the contracting parties belongs to the solemnizing officer’s church or religious sect.”
Marriages solemnized by an officer who lacks authority may be considered void from the very beginning and a petition for declaration of nullity of marriage will be in order. If she or her husband, or both of them, believed in good faith that the solemnizing officer had the legal authority to solemnize their marriage, then the marriage will be considered valid and binding in consonance with the provisions of Article 35 (2) of the Family Code.
Sometimes it is quite good to pretend. Pretend that everything is okay. Or that things are blissful when in reality behind these pretense are truths that we neglect to see and which could actually do us more harm than good. Just like these marriages. They seem real and to a certain degree. They could be thought of as real because the contracting parties believed in the authority of the solemnizing officer, unknowing that behind the façade of what seemed real was in fact a sham.
The only truth that we should bank on is the truth that behind theses wedding rituals is the love that binds two people. (gordon.qg@hotmail.com/PN)
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