ILOILO City – Around 44 couples in Cabatuan, Iloilo declared their life-long commitment to each other not through wedding rings but through “love locks.”
The Cabatuan local government hosted the one-of-a-kind annual civil mass wedding after Valentine’s.
Each couple was given a love lock with their names engraved on it, Mayor Ronilo Caspe said on Friday.
The participating couples fastened the locks in a love birds’ cage located at the town’s public plaza and they tossed their keys in the “Fountain of Love,” Caspe said.
“We have a lot of unmarried couples because church weddings are expensive,” Caspe said. “Children usually encounter problems in their birth certificates because of their unmarried parents.”
He added that couples, even those who are not part of the mass wedding, are also welcome to use the love birds’ cage and the “Fountain of Love.”
It is the town’s monthly practice to conceptualize themes and put on designs at the municipal plaza during special celebrations, said Caspe.
The wedding program of the local government unit gathered couples not only from Cabatuan but also from neighboring towns.
“February is love month so we put up hearts decorations and even a place for ‘hugot lines’ for the public to enjoy,” he said. (PNA/PN)
