BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occ., Philippines — Some 750 couples will be solemnized during a mass wedding to be held in the early afternoon of February 14, that is, on Valentines Day, at the city’s New Government Center. The event, dubbed “I do, I do, Araw ng Pag-big," is being sponsored by the Pag-IBIG Fund and Pag-IBIG Fund Bacolod branch manager Ms. Lourdes Uy, in a recent press conference told local media that this is the only Pag-IBIG branch office in the entire Visayas to sponsor such an activity.

Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia has sent communication to Vice President Jejomar Binay, inviting the latter to stand as godfather to the couples to be wed in said Valentine’s mass wedding here.

Leonardia said Pag-IBIG will fund the wedding decorations and after-wedding reception. “This will be the first time after several mass wedding ceremonies, that the couples will be given a wedding reception. For a romantic dinner, Pag-IBIG Fund and the city government intend to have the reception near the fountain, fronting the new government center,” informed the Bacolod mayor, adding that “in Manila, a similar mass wedding ceremony was held for 300 couples only while I believe we will have the biggest number of couples in the Philippines, at 750 couples, insofar as mass weddings in the country are concerned.”

For his part, Bacolod City Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson said, “We are happy that the mass wedding will be co-sponsored by the Pag-IBIG Fund, and we would like to thank the latter for the support. We hope this could be the start of an active participation of the agency in the different projects and programs of the city government.