A life sentence for Fred Marigomen & Jing Castillo

You suspect you were dreaming. You blink your eyes a number of times but see the same scenario unfolding before you. A pretty olive-skinned, chinky-eyed young woman in a white wedding gown exchanging rings and "I do’s" with a slim man in a dark suit with an admirable bearing who could well be her father!

You look around you and see familiar prominent faces of people in the church pews reserved for the wedding sponsors, all sporting smiles for the happy but odd couple at the altar.

Then they kiss, pose for photos and march down the aisle as newly-proclaimed man and wife.

You cannot snap out of your dream because it is not one.

On that balmy afternoon of June 27, 2003, retired Court of Appeals Justice Alfredo "Fred" Mendoza Marigomen, 78, married Metropolitan Trial Court of Quezon City Judge Evangeline "Jing" Crisologo Castillo, 37.

Their wedding came on the heels of much excitement mixed with sadness, wonderment and a flurry of speculations and rumors.

For more than a year prior to their wedding, their constantly being seen alone together in restaurants and gatherings made them an item in coffeeshops, hallways and the hallowed halls of the judiciary, as people speculated that their alliance couldn’t be anything but love.

Her parents, on the other hand, were hoping against hope that the lady judge would reverse her decision. She was young and they worried a lot if she could cope with caring for a much older man. In fact, one who is older than her own father. Her mother, descending from the feisty Crisologo clan of Vigan, Ilocos Sur, cried silently for days before the wedding.

What everyone else did not know was that Jing Castillo, was deeply and truly in love with her dashing groom, whom she fondly describes as her soulmate. It was a case of opposite poles attracting each other – he coming from the south (San Remigio, Cebu) and she from the north, a scion (great-granddaughter) of the prominent Casimiro (Don Mirong) Castillo of Urdaneta, Pangasinan.

Her magnetic attraction could be attributed to her legal orientation. She comes from families of lawyers and judges. Her dad is the former Regional Trial Court of Quezon City Judge Prudencio Altre Castillo Jr. Both her grandfathers (Geronimo L. Crisologo and Prudencio V. Castillo) were judges, too. Her paternal aunt Atty. Nene Castillo of UP Class ’57 is a classmate of Justice Bellosillo. Prosecutor Dante Crisologo of Pasig is her maternal uncle. The partner in the entourage of this writer, Atty. Roberto C. San Juan from Sycip Law, is an uncle, too.

Though they were neighbors in Quezon City, heard Masses almost daily in the same San Nicolas de Tolentino church, she using the vacant lot of the Justice as her parking space (through the help of Justice and Mrs. Santiago Kapunan), their fateful encounter happened only when Jing applied for judgeship – Fred, was then a member of the Judicial and Bar Council that nominates candidates for the positions of judges and justices.

Their first meeting immediately ignited sparks. Jing saw him as a dashing, well-dressed and highly respectable gentleman. He saw her as a vibrant, pretty and intelligent woman. Truth is, the strange but heartwarming love story of Jing and Fred began years back with signs that, beyond the shadow of a doubt, they were meant to share life together.

When Jing was nominated by the Judicial and Bar Council for appointment by Malacañang, she visited Justice Kapunan and Justice Artemio Tuquero whose help she had solicited to thank them. She was told by both of them that it was Justice Marigomen she should thank, for it was he who strongly pushed for her nomination. They began teasing her by saying "Binata si Fred."

When she was finally appointed as Metropolitan Trial Court judge, Justice Fred started calling her up. He would invite her for lunch and dinner, until they became almost inseparable. It was in one of their dinners that Justice Fred put his arms around Jing‘s shoulders for the first time.

Jing opened her heart to this writer in the early stages of their courtship and confided that she believed she was falling for Justice Fred. However, she was concerned about how her parents would accept him. He, too, she said, was extremely anxious about how he would introduce himself to her parents and whether he would be ridiculed or accepted. But meet them, he had to do, since her parents were beginning to question her almost daily dinner dates.

Because her parents were sleepless after her announcement that Justice Fred would visit her in the house for no official reason, she did her best to introduce Fred to her family, putting forth his good points (bar topnotcher with a grade of 92.55 percent, an army officer like her grandfather, father of five professional children, a God-fearing man, etc., etc.).

Ever conscious of their age difference, her admirers, his children’s and her family‘s reactions, he was worried he would not be able to make Jing happy in the physical sense and she might spurn his proposal the moment he popped the question. But one day, Justice Fred woke up to realize that if he did not act soon enough, he could lose the one woman who has brought laughter and music back in his life.

Shunting worries aside and, for the first time giving in to what mattered to him most, Justice Fred rendered a decision on his long-pending case. And the lady Judge affirmed his decision in toto.

And so, what was dubbed by Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr. as the wedding of the century took place in a simple, elegant and heartwarming ceremony.

The sponsors were a gathering of judicial luminaries and national celebrities. Former President Fidel V. Ramos, Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr., Ming Ramos, represented by Ambassador Lolita Rueca Haney, and Virginia P. Davide led the line- up.

The other sponsors were: Senior Associate Justice Josue N. Bellosillo, Justice Angelina S. Gutierrez, Quezon City Mayor Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte Jr., Germelina R. Crisologo, Justice and Mrs. Regino C. Hermosisima Jr., Justice Santiago Kapunan, Atty. Teresita C. Sison, Atty. Roberto C. San Juan and Atty. Rita Linda Jimeno.

The groom’s best man was former Executive Secretary Catalino Macaraig and maid of honor was Judge Maria Elisa Diy of Quezon City.

One of the female sponsors quipped: Justice Fred and Judge Jing breathed life to what poets can only write about — that love knows no bounds and limits.