Manila Two thousand Filipino couples married Tuesday in nine civil wedding ceremonies nationwide, with the help of a government-run agency that extends short and long-term housing loans to families.
"We helped couples marry who have no money for their wedding. We offered them housing loans with the help of local government units that promised to fast track the processing of housing loans," Vice-President Jejomar C. Binay said in a radio interview during a mass civil wedding of 600 couples in Bacolod.
During the "love project" of the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF), dubbed as "I do, I do during love's day," 80 other couples were wed in a mass civil wedding in Baguio City, northern Luzon; 348 other couples in Metro Manila; 450 couples in southern Luzon's Laguna and Naga; 200 couples in Cebu and 600 couples in Cagayan de Oro, Davao City and Kidapawan, said Binay, adding weddings were held separately at SM Malls nationwide.
