Want to get married in Anilao? Plant a tree first
Prospective brides and grooms in the Municipality of Anilao, Iloilo will soon have to add in their "To-do" list a tree-planting activity.
This, as the town passed a local law requiring all applicants for marriage licenses here to plant trees on duly specified areas of their respective barangays.
Contained in Ordinance No. 2008-006, the move got the unanimous concurrence of the municipal council headed by Vice Mayor June Sargado.
Section 1 of the Ordinance provided, "In addition to the requirements imposed by the Municipal Civil Registrar, applicants for marriage license are hereby required to plant trees on areas duly specified by the Sangguniang Barangay."
Stricter provisions too, for prospective brides and grooms in coastal barangays.
"…applicants shall be encouraged to plant mangroves on designated areas along the shorelines," the Ordinance continued.
Failure to comply will mean denial of the marriage license.
"No marriage license shall be issued to the applicants unless a certification from the Punong Barangay that the contracting parties for marriage have planted trees is presented to the Municipal Civil Registrar," Section of 3 of the Ordinance ended.
Yet it is not only exclusive in Anilao that the tree-planting as marriage requirement is in effect.
For years now, the Municipality of Guimbal has imposed the same then passed during the administration of former Guimbal Mayor now San Joaquin Mayor Ninfa Garin.
In lieu of actual tree-planting here, couple-applicants in Guimbal are enjoined to submit seedlings that are then kept in the town's nursery and distributed to various barangays in need.