CENOMAR

Ok, kumag level set to a minimum (the very minimum, the Subaudible)….

Fact 1: Nowhere near a Certificate of No Marriage (CENOMAR) made a requirement to contract marriage. http://www.gov.ph/faqs/marriage.asp

Fact 2: A CENOMAR is not a requirement for marriage. It is only essential if you want to be certain that the civil status of the person you are marrying is still single and that he or she is unattached. http://www.weddingsatwork.com/laws_cenomar.shtml

So we did what any law abiding Filipino citizen should do in order to be married.

We applied for CENOMARs.

And because I know nothing about getting documents in our City Hall, I enlisted the help of my Tatay to help me secure these needed documents to contract marriage. Tatay is such an expert with these things (his spider connections helped a lot of people before so why shouldn’t I too?) So while I am still here in Las Piñas, good old Tatay took it upon himself securing a CENOMAR for me so applying for a Marriage License will be in a jiff.

And off to the City Hall we went!

I am not surprised anymore to find literally a mob in the City Hall transacting this and that, people queuing up everywhere to get this and that, blah blah yakityy-yakitty-yakyak…
We didn’t have a hard time getting to the Civil Registry since, ahem, Tatay had lots of acquaintances. So while we were waiting (yes we did wait some time too, city employees are not that many you know) Tatay and I get to chat to pass time. I forgot the exact conversation but I reconstructed it to the best of my knowledge and poor memory; heck I was a dud in memorizing things but this is the nearest that I can get with the gist still juicy…)

Kumag: Hindi naman pala kelangan ng CENOMAR pagkuha ng lisensya (Marriage License) ano?

Tatay: Ha? Kelangan yun ano ka ba? Requirement talaga yan.

Kumag: Hinde ah? Nabasa ko sa Family Code hindi required sa pag-apply. Pero yung iba hinahanap yan tulad ng simbahan o ibang religion.

Tatay: Aba kelangan nga yan, kung hindi kelangan yan eh hindi ka na pakukuhanin nyan…

Tatay’s right. Why would I be required to produce a document like CENOMAR if is not required? He could have looked at me with incredulity and could have been thinking hard if he had succeeded at last in fathering a crazy son (which in some respects he did I think, but that’s another story). To cut the long story short, we were able to secure a marriage application, with the help of our CENOMAR!

Now this is much more perplexing…

Lisette is now having a hard time securing needed Church documents in Batangas. We need this so I can present this in turn to my local Church here in Las Piñas. Reason: She doesn’t have a CENOMAR.

Lisette, ever the smart aleck opined to the kind Church dude that the CENOMAR was submitted to the City Hall in Lucena as a “requirement” to have a Marriage License. Now since the Church will somehow get a hold of the Marriage License, it will no longer be necessary to go through the motions of presenting the CENOMAR, when in fact we can present the Marriage License itself.

Nice Lisette!

Meanwhile, the Church dude said:

“We still need it.”

AAHHRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!! NOSEBLEED!!!

*** Here is the excerpted text in http://www.weddingsatwork.com/laws_cenomar.shtml.

A CENOMAR is not a requirement for marriage. It is only essential if you want to be certain that the civil status of the person you are marrying is still single and that he or she is unattached. This may be important since any marriage contracted while another one is still subsisting is considered as null and void under Article 35 (4) of the Family Code of the Philippines for being bigamous. Moreover, bigamy (the contracting of a second or subsequent marriage before the former marriage has been legally dissolved, or before the absent spouse has been declared presumptively dead by means of a judgment rendered in the proper proceedings) is also punishable as a crime under Article 349 of the Revised Penal Code. So if you have doubts regarding the civil status of your future spouse, it might be a good idea to procure a CENOMAR.

At times, a CENOMAR may be required by certain parishes. It may also be required if your future spouse is applying for a fiancee visa in your behalf. Moreover, Philippine embassies may also require a CENOMAR for Filipino nationals who wish to get married in a foreign country or in the Philippine Embassy within the foreign country.

*** I was thinking why don’t the Family Code require the CENOMAR since it’s being required anyways? ***holes!

Monday, August 20, 2007