Muntinlupa Mayor Ruffy Biazon officiated his first wedding on Thursday, July 7, as the city's new chief executive.
Biazon officiated the wedding of couple Christopher Matsumoto and Paulina Ysabel Lopez at the mayor’s office.
“First time ko. Ito ang unang couple na ikinasal. Mas kinabahan yata ako dun sa bride and groom. Pero exciting din. Dati sanay na ako maging ninong. This time around I am the officiating officer. (This is my first time. This is the first couple that I married. I probably was more nervous than the bride and groom. But it was exciting also. I was used to being the godfather before. This time around, I am the officiating officer),” said Biazon in a video taken of the ceremony.
He added, “Sa lahat ng gustong magpakasal diyan, nandito ako handa. (To all those who want to get married, I am ready here).”
To the couple, he said, “Happy, happy life ahead. May you be blessed with good health, happiness, prosperity, and abundance.”
Under Article 55 of the Civil Code of the Philippines, “No particular form for the ceremony of marriage is required, but the parties with legal capacity to contract marriage must declare, in the presence of the person solemnizing the marriage and of two witnesses of legal age, that they take each other as husband and wife.”
Article 56 states that “marriage may be solemnized by” the chief justice and associate justices of the Supreme Court; the presiding justice and the justices of the Court of Appeals; judges of the Courts of First Instance; mayors of cities and municipalities; municipal judges and justices of the peace; priests, rabbis, ministers of the gospel of any denomination, church, religion or sect, duly registered, as provided in Article 92; ship captains, airplane chiefs, military commanders; and consuls and vice-consuls in special cases.
The law added that “the marriage shall be solemnized publicly in the office of the judge in open court or of the mayor; or in the church, chapel or temple, as the case may be, and not elsewhere, except in cases of marriages contracted on the point of death or in remote places in accordance with article 72 of this Code, or in case of marriage referred to in article 76 or when one of the parents or the guardian of the female or the latter herself if over eighteen years of age request it in writing, in which cases the marriage may be solemnized at a house or place designated by said parent or guardian of the female or by the latter herself in a sworn statement to that effect.”
Biazon served as congressman of Muntinlupa since 2001 before winning as mayor in the May 9 elections.