Makati holds free wedding for 35 couples

MANILA, Philippines — Thirty-five indigent couples tied the knot during an annual mass wedding, worth P4.49 million,  sponsored by the Makati City government.

Mayor Abby Binay officiated the mass wedding rites at the Makati Sports Club on Nov. 5. Vice Mayor Monique Lagdameo and the city’s second district Rep. Luis Campos, Binay’s husband, acted as principal sponsors.

Through the family and men’s welfare section of the city’s social welfare department, Makati said in a statement that it shouldered almost all of the couples’ expenses ranging from wedding gowns and suits, invitations, 14-karat gold rings, bridal bouquets, boutonnieres, wedding cakes, hair and makeup, venue, food for the guests, wedding singers and performers and photo and video coverage.

The newlyweds also received six-cubic-feet refrigerators as gifts from the city government, it added.

The couples are all registered voters of Makati who had been living together for at least five years and are beneficiaries of the city government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, Binay said.