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SPEAKING OUT
Last July 22, while most of Luzon braced for yet another round of flooding, a couple in Malolos chose to walk through rising waters—not to evacuate, but to get married. Inside the historic Barasoain Church, Jade Rick Verdillo and Jamaica Aguilar stood ankle-deep in floodwater to exchange vows, surrounded by guests who waded barefoot between pews. Their altar was not adorned with extravagance, but with sheer will and quiet defiance.
The photos from that day graced front pages across Metro Manila and reached as far as the Asian Wall Street Journal. It’s easy to see why: the visual juxtaposition of ceremony and calamity, of lace trailing in murky water, of smiling flower girls with wet feet, told a story so uniquely ours. One that doesn’t need translation.
But this was more than a viral moment. It was a mirror.
Barasoain Church is no ordinary setting. It was here, in 1899, that our nation’s first republic was born. Our forebears gathered within those same stone walls—likely with the same humidity, possibly with flood creeping in—to lay down a constitution built on hope and belief in Filipino dignity.
And now, a century later, that same church witnessed another act of faith—not in politics, but in love. In the everyday courage of two young Filipinos who knew that the flood might ruin the gown, muddy the carpet, soak the flowers… but not the promise. “We just mustered enough courage,” the groom said.
That courage is familiar. It lives in families whose children still walk through flooded streets for school, in farmers whose harvests come second to evacuation, and in urban dwellers whose homes sit just a few millimeters above the drainage line. We Filipinos don’t romanticize struggle—but we do endure it. With humor, heart, and the grace to make beauty out of difficulty.
Barasoain, once the birthplace of our republic, has again become a backdrop for a quieter kind of patriotism: the everyday kind. No speeches. No flags. Just the unshakable decision to love, even when the world feels unsteady.
In truth, the couple could’ve postponed. Waited for clearer skies. But like many of us, they understood that waiting for ideal conditions often means waiting forever. So they waded in. That’s how we’ve always moved forward—as a people, as a nation. Not in perfectly dry shoes, but in soaked slippers and stubborn joy.
That is what makes this wedding worthy of memory. Not the glamour. Not the splash. But the grit. Barasoain didn’t just witness a marriage. It witnessed a testament to what it still stands for: hope, born in adversity. ([email protected])
