World News
Why Filipinos keep getting married in flooded churches
It was a scene you’d expect to see at any wedding.
Jamaica Aguilar walked down the aisle, clutching her father’s arm, dressed in a white gown and cathedral-length veil worthy of the baroque-style church she was in.
Except for the fact that she, as well as all her guests, were almost knee-deep in water: the church was completely flooded due to heavy rains brought in by both a seasonal monsoon and a typhoon.
But the couple didn’t let that stop them – saying it was “challenging, but we focused on what’s important”.
The scenes from the Barasoain Church north of the Philippine capital Manila soon went viral on social media and made the rounds as another example of Filipino resilience in the face of calamity.
But amazingly, this wasn’t the first time something like this had occurred. Two years ago, another Filipino couple walked down the flooded aisle of the same church, at the same time of the year. And in 2018, a couple tied the knot at a flooded church in Bulacan province, just north of Manila.
The submerged weddings aren’t just a tale of determination – they are the latest example of a festering flood problem that continues to bring misery to millions, a problem exacerbated by decaying sewage systems, poor urban planning, and extreme weather events that are growing more intense and frequent.
Altars and antibiotics
For the 27-year-old bride, the hardest part of the wedding was the night before, when she was deciding whether or not to go ahead with the ceremony.
The wedding planners had warned them that the rains would get worse.
“It was the most critical time for us — should we cancel and reschedule it? It was 50/50 for me — I was considering cancelling,” she told the BBC.
But in the end they decided to press on.
“It was challenging but we focused on what’s really important – our relationship and the people who love us,” 27-year-old groom Jade Rick Verdillo said, adding that they were both “overjoyed” after the ceremony.
One of the first things they did as husband and wife was to take doxycycline pills from their local health centre.
It’s an antibiotic to prevent flood-borne diseases such as leptospirosis, which attacks the liver.
Comments
