Bride sues runaway groom

`A young bride (name withheld) has filed a damage suit worth more than half-million pesos against her groom (name also withheld), who left her in front of the altar on their wedding day while they were about to exchange their marital vows, to be with another girl.

In what could have been a scene off a television drama, the bride was left at the altar when the groom ran away with another woman.

After the preparations for a grand wedding banquet, a grand legal battle looms as the bride filed a civil case for damages against her runaway groom for breach of promise to marry.

She is asking for actual and moral damages from the man through the court including the litigation cost amounting to P549,630.71 excluding the P2,500 appearance fee of the lawyer every hearing.

The groom allegedly walked out from Our Lady of Sacred Heart Parish Church at the Capitol Site in the afternoon of December 22, 2007 leaving the bride at the altar in the middle of the wedding ceremony.

In a five-page complaint filed before the Regional Trial Court, the complainant recalled how happy she was walking on the aisle looking forward to exchanging “I Dos” with the man who was her sweetheart for more than a year.

The wedding ceremony reportedly started did not start on time because the groom arrived 10 minutes late for the 3:30 p.m. schedule.  The groom reportedly continued to tinker with his cellular phone even during the rites, but the bride did not have any doubts that her groom would leave her even if she had already noticed that the man arrived at the church seemingly with teary eyes.

However, as soon as the officiating priest reached the point on the exchange of marital vows asking the couple if they came on their own free will to take each other to be their lawful husband and wife, the groom was only able to say the first “I Do.”

Before he could say the second “I Do,” a woman appeared at the aisle and shouted that the priest stop the wedding.

“Upon hearing the voice of the lady at the back, defendant was not able to answer I do and without any hesitation or saying something or anything, he turned his back and walked very fast towards the lady. They then hug each other and went outside the church together,” the complaint read.

The visitors including the parents of the groom and the bride were stunned by what happened.

Henry Espinosa, head of the security of the Palace of Justice, who witnessed the incident, said that the priest tried to call the groom several times using the microphone to come back and settle the matter, but his plea fell on deaf ears.

The man together with the other woman left the church on board a taxi and never came back.

Twenty minutes after the groom left her in the church, the bride said they went to the prepared wedding banquet at the Royal Concourse together with their visitors and the supposed wedding sponsors.

Since then, she claims that she has not slept well and has been trembling with anger for her besmirched reputation and wounded feelings.

The bride and groom were classmates at Southwestern University where they first met in 1998. They have not seen each other since year 2000.

However, in December 2005 the two were brought together by fate when they saw each other at the Saint Vincent Church in barangay Sambag II.   The courtship began until they became sweethearts in February 2006. — Fred P. Languido/NLQ