BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO City – “Wedding fixers” operate at the Iloilo Hall of Justice but their days are now numbered.
The Regional Trial Court (RTC) will issue guidelines governing the process or application of couples who want to marry in a bid to eradicate the fixers.
Under the guidelines, couples who want to get married should go personally to the Hall of Justice and indicate their intention to get married, said Judge Globert Justalero, spokesperson of RTC-Iloilo.
“The payment is only P300. The marriage bureau will not accept transactions from fixers or facilitator unless the person is authorized,” said Justalero.
Reports on radio said that more than 100 couples had been victimized by wedding fixers, one of whom was identified as “Jen-jen”. She asks for P4,000 to P5,000 to process the documents.
Her racket was discovered when some of the couples found out that their marriage contracts were not forwarded to the city registrar.
Justalero warned that while Jen-jen is not a court employee, she has friends who are court employees.
She is also often seen at the Local Civil Registrar’s Office and at the City Hall where she also offers the same services to marriageable couples.
Justalero, meanwhile, advised the victimized couples to check their documents with the officiating judge.
There have already been cases involving fixer-forged signatures of the judges and the city civil registrar Romeo Manikan Jr.
“If their signatures were forged on a wedding contract, it is considered null and void,” said Justalero.
The victims may file a case of falsification of documents against the culprits, he said./PN
