ALAMINOS CITY (15 February) -- Some 200 couples will join a mass civil wedding yesterday, Valentine's Day, at the Lucap Wharf as a special activity here for the Day of Hearts.

The mass wedding will primarily cater to couples who cannot afford the cost of getting married. Many of the expected couples are already living as husbands and wives for many years despite being unmarried.

Mayor Hernani Braganza will solemnize the mass civil wedding called "Hundred Kisses for the Hundred Islands.".The wedding site, Lucap, is the jump-off point to the Hundred islands National Park.

This will be the fourth mass wedding since 2005 to be solemnized by Braganza who exempted the couples from paying the required application fee for their marriage licenses.

Reynaldo Castro, the city's Civil Registrar and overall coordinator of the event said that so far, 140 already applied for the mass wedding.

The city government invited wedding singers to serenade the couples, making the union more memorable.

After the wedding, a Valentine's Party will follow, featuring live band performance. Wedding cakes, wines, sumptuous food, flowers and souvenir photos will be shouldered by Braganza, Vice Mayor Teofilo Humilde and members of the city council.

Braganza said Article 34 of the Family Code of the Philippines states that no license shall be necessary for the marriage of a man and a woman who have lived together as husband and wife at least five years and without any legal impediment to marry each other. (PIA-Pangasinan)