PRESS RELEASE
October 16, 2008
Office of Caloocan City Mayor Enrico “Recom” Echiverri
Ref. Public Information Office
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Recom sponsors first Muslim mass wedding

Aside from being the principal sponsor, Caloocan City Mayor Enrico “Recom” Echiverri yesterday officiated the first-ever Muslim Mass Wedding in the city and probably in the entire country.

Some 150 veiled brides and their grooms, all belonging to the Islam faith and residents of the city’s largest Muslim community in Barangay 188, Tala, gathered and were married in a civil mass wedding ceremony held at the Caloocan City Hall North plaza in Camarin.

The marriage ceremony primarily aimed to help young people deal with the prohibitive costs of marriage and give residents the benefit of securing a marriage license according to Echiverri.

The Civil Registry Department (CRD) prepared the special venue by adorning it with Muslim-inspired decorations and motif. Guests, meanwhile, were segregated by gender in accordance with strict Islamic traditions.

Ustadz Ansary Mustapha began the ceremony by reading religious passages from the Qur’an.

Other wedding sponsors, including Liga ng mga Barangay President Ricojudge “RJ” Echiverri and City Administrator Russel Ramirez, explained the legalities of the local chief executive to officiate civil marriages.

"This issue of wedding has been burning in your hearts for a long time. But today you have overcome it," Echiverri said during the service.

Muslim leaders led by Barangay chairman Edres Domato have earlier requested the mayor for the ceremony to benefit their constituents.

For her part, City Civil Registrar Luchi Flores explained that the wedding was not organized by the mayor to favor one religion but rather have an exclusive ceremony that would allow couples to properly secure their marriage licenses.

“Some of the couples who applied for the event have already been married and blessed by the imam but there is no marriage contract,” Flores said.

Flores added that the CRD will also facilitate the free registration of birth of the couples’ children.

One groom, Ayman Radwan, 25, a market vendor said "Mayor Echiverri had provided us with a civil wedding that we will cherish for the rest of our lives.”

On the other hand, Abdel Taha, 27, said he would not have been able to get married had it not been for the mass wedding as it is next to impossible to be able to cover the expenses of marriage