By ALI MACABALANG BULUAN, Maguindanao – Filipino music icon Freddie Aguilar and his 16-year-old fiancé Jovie Gatdula Albao are getting married under Muslim rites here today. Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu, fresh from conducting a humanitarian mission for victims of typhoon “Yolanda” in the Visayas, is officiating their wedding. Mangudadatu said he agreed to marry the couple under Presidential Decree 1083 (Muslim Family Code of the Philippines) after the popular singer, Ferdinand Pascua Aguilar in real life, agreed to embrace Islam. The wedding coincides with the conduct of a “kanduli” (thanksgiving) marking Maguindanao’s 40th foundation anniversary celebration. The earlier scheduled preceding five-day festivities were suspended by organizers in favor of the dispatch of humanitarian relief mission to Samar and Leyte led by the governor. Mangudadatu called up Aguilar to get his “final decision.” He said later that Aguilar reaffirmed his conversion to Islam and wed his fiancé under Muslim rites. The groom and his bride would wear Muslim dresses during the ceremony, Mangudadatu added. Aguilar revealed late last month his romance with Albao, drawing mixed public reactions, with some female personalities expressing objections due to her age. Under the country’s civil code, persons below the legal age of 18 years would not qualify for marriage. In Islamic Shariah Law, however, qualification for matrimony is reckoned on the first menstrual day of the bride as exemplified in the marriage of Prophet Mohammad and Aisha, who was about 16-years-old then. Mangudadatu said he has known Aguilar since 2011 because of his inclination to embrace Islam even prior to meeting Albao. “It will be his accountability to God,” the governor said when asked about the possibility of Aguilar’s bid to become Muslim “for personal convenience.” But prominent residents in Maguindanao, two of them related to Mangudadatu, aired reservations on Aguilar’s “conversion to Islam at this controversial stage.” “One conservative Muslim group perceived as possible act of monafiq (hypocrite),” Khadaffy, a local elected official, said. Fatima, a Muslim businesswoman, commented: “Bakit naman ganyan ang idol ko (Aguilar)?” Noted for his utmost humanitarian traits, Mangudadatu said his solemnization of Aguilar’s wedding would happen after the singer shall have performed formal conversion process, citing his humanitarian principle in life. “While alive, I would want to help people in distress, with sole intent to reap any reward in the life hereafter…I have experienced the pangs of distress when I lost my wife, sisters, and friends in the (November 23, 2009) massacre…” Unknown to many, the governor has been sponsoring the hospitalization of sick ordinary folk and school studies of hundreds of poor children, spending several thousands of pesos, Kagi Nasser Dilangalen, his close-in escort, said. A day after Aguilar’s wedding, Mangudadatu and his kin would be embarking on mournful activities in remembrance of fourth anniversary of the 2009 carnage. Relevant events include a run for justice and a visit at the massacre site in Sitio Masalay in Ampatuan, Maguindanao where Aguilar is set to sing justice-seeking songs, the governor said. Aguilar’s wedding would be the third for Mangudadatu to officiate as elected public official. When he was mayor of this town in 2003, the governor said, he had officiated the wedding of a young couple, both 16-years-old. The solemnization prevented a possible wage of vendetta by the foreign-based parents of the bride, who was impregnated while on vacation in the country by her boyfriend-turned husband.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 00:50:14 +0000
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