The Supreme Court, just yesterday, laid down guidelines on the solemnization of marriage by the members of the Judiciary. These guidelines are meant to address the controversies in connection with alleged irregular solemnization of marriages by judges.
The guidlines, as contained in Administrative Order No. 125-2007 (”Guidelines on the Solemnization of Marriage by the Members of the Judiciary“, 9 August 2007), include the following (as culled from a news item at the SC website):
Under the Guidelines, the solemnizing officer shall be duty-bound to do the following before performing a marriage ceremony: ensure that that the parties appear personally and are the same contracting parties to the marriage; personally interview the contracting parties and personally examine the documents submitted to ascertain if there is compliance with the essential and formal requisites of marriage under the Family Code, as well as the presented marriage license to determine its authenticity, completeness, and validity. There shall not be less than two individuals of legal age to witness the marriage when the parties take each other as husband and wife.
In cases when either or both of the contracting parties is a foreigner, the solemnizing officer must also examine the certificate of legal capacity to contract marriage issued by the concerned diplomatic or consular officials attached to the marriage license.
xxxThe Guidelines also reiterate that the legal fees for solemnization of marriage and issuance of marriage certificate by justices or judges is in the amount of Php300, regardless of who will be the solemnizing officer. These must be paid in Philippine currency and must be properly receipted. A demand for excess amounts shall subject the solemnizing office to administrative disciplinary measures.
We will post the full text of Administrative Order No. 125-2007 as soon as it is available.
TO ALL
I know this to be out of place. Please bear with me. I just want to create awareness by choosing the busy forum or the latest.
Do consider Dr. Martin Bautista for the next elections obviously (a senatorial candidate of ‘Ang Kapatiran’ together with Adrian Sison and Zosimo Paredes). He’s a 44-year-old gastroenterologist in the US who came home after 17 years. You can see from his background that he truly means service. For those who find him to be a hypocrite for working abroad, do understand he’s a family man who needs to sustain his family, that he will be able to keep his independence by not relying on public funds to support his family. He helps his countrymen in his capacity but it’s just not enough for there are millions of Filipinos. It’s a good start in Philippine Politics to have him and his party around.
I urge you to forward/text/inform all your contacts about them. I believe they only lack exposure that’s why I’m doing this. But I can’t do it alone so I’m appealing to everyone’s help. If all will inform their contacts about them and urge them as well to forward, we might hit a million.
We cannot afford to be indifferent now if we want meaningful change. Otherwise we only have ourselves to blame. BUT TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.