Pinay loses case to have husband’s body repatriated from Saipan


A Filipina in Saipan will not be able to repatriate the body of her husband of 20 years after a court declared their marriage invalid, reports said.
A report on Saipan Tribune said Superior Court Associate Judge Teresa K. Kim-Tenorio found the marriage ceremony between Virginia Bonifacio and Gil Ramos Medina invalid in accordance with local laws.
The judge said Bonifacio and Medina had no marriage license from their ceremony at the Philippine Consulate General in Saipan in 1993, which they failed to input in the marriage register.
A separate report on Marianas Variety quoted Kim as ruling that Bonifacio and Medina's failure to comply with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands marriage laws was "fatal" to the validity of their marriage.
Having their marriage solemnized by a consular officer did not count either as officers are not allowed to issue marriage licenses.
Furthermore, the judge considered Medina's marriage to an Antonia Reyes Medina in 1997 valid.
Because of this, Bonifacio could not take the body of Medina, who passed away on December 19, 2017, back to the Philippines. Her claim was transmitted to Mrs. Medina after she made arrangements for her husband's cremation last January 9 at the Borja Funeral Home.
The first Mrs. Medina left CNMI shortly after their marriage, gave birth to their first child in the Philippines, and conceived their second child when her then-husband visited in 2001. He visited her for the last time in 2017.
Medina did not mention Bonifacio in the handwritten note he left behind for Mrs. Medina, her children, and grandchild. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News

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