The whirlwind romance between actor Robin Padilla and television host Mariel Rodriguez culminated in a very private wedding ceremony held in Baguio City last Monday, September 13.
A “mambunong” native priest named Jimmy Ong officiated the Ibaloi ceremony that lasted for one and a half hour. Both Padilla and Rodriguez wore Ibaloi attire during the ceremony. A pig was butchered and the blood was smeared on the faces of the celebrity couple.
The Ibaloi ceremony was Padilla’s way of revealing his roots to Rodriguez as his mother Eva Cariño-Padilla, is an Igorot. Robin’s youngest son Ali was present to witness the event. After the Ibaloi wedding, Robin and Mariel were married again in a ceremony officiated by a pastor.
However there is no reported trace of a wedding license to make that ceremony legally binding. But according to some Ibalois, the tribal ceremony alone makes Padilla, 42, the husband of Rodriguez, 26.
Aside from Ali, Robin has three other children with his former wife Liezl Sicangco, namely Queenie, Kylie, and Zhen-Zhen.
