By Anthony Giron
IMUS CITY – Local government units (LGUs) in Cavite opted for a lesser number of activities for the Valentine month of February amid the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) threat.
(Photo by Ted ALJIBE / AFP / MANILA BULLETIN)
While most cities and municipalities in the province used to even hold week-long, if not month-long, celebration to mark Valentine’s Day, many have opted to cancel events, while advising residents to avoid going to mass gatherings.
In Tagaytay City, the local government has called off its month-long "Pista ng Pag-ibig" or "Feast of Love" in adherence to the alert call of the Department of Health (DOH) on COVID-19 threat.
Tagaytay has been undertaking the month-long celebration for the past two decades being the province’s no. 1 tourist destination imbued with the romantic ambiance fit for a Valentine’s Day-themed event.
But this year, City Tourism and Cultural Development Officer Jelanne R. Mendoza said that the lone event for the Valentine celebration was the traditional mass civil marriage ceremonies.
The event, dubbed Civil Mass Wedding 2020, had 20 couples who exchanged vows at a hall of the Tagaytay International Convention Center.
It was the least number of couples who participated in the mass wedding in years. The couples usually number over a hundred at times.
City Mayor Agnes Delgado-Tolentino, Vice Mayor Reymond A. Ambion and the city councilors led the simple and brief but "sweet and memorable" wedding ceremonies.
"The number was understandable, there was the alert on COVID-19," Tolentino said in an interview with this reporter after the ceremonies.
The couples, their guests and others who attended the wedding were made to undergo a thermal scan before being allowed into the hall.
Local officials in Dasmarinas and Rosario and Noveleta celebrated the "Love Day" with their similar simple "Kasalang Bayan (town weddings)".
Dasmarinas Mayor Jennifer A. Barzaga and her husband Cavite fourth district Representative Elpidio "Pidi" Barzaga led the wedding ceremonies for hundreds of couples at a hall of the city's De La Salle University.
In Rosario, Mayor Jose "Nonong" Ricafrente and other local officials led a free mass civil wedding at the Isla Bonita (Island of Beauty), a resort known for its sunrise-view area.
In Imus, the capital, top Councilor Adrian Jay Adivincula and his staff led the distribution of red roses and chocolates on Valentine's Day to all female employees at the city hall.
Imus' other traditional public activities for the day were called off for the meantime in line with the DOH's COVID-19 alert call.