IT WAS a double celebration for Cebu City Acting Mayor Michael Rama on Thursday, October 28, 2021, when he married his girlfriend on his 67th birthday.
Rama wed Malou Jimenez Mandanat, 32, in an intimate ceremony attended only by a few close friends of the couple.
The mayor and the former Cebu City Hall employee have a one-year-old son.
A day after their wedding, the mayor formally introduced his wife to the public for the first time when they attended the event for the Cebu Cordova Expressway main bridge deck connection.
“My wife, I would like to introduce her. Never mind asking when my marriage is. Many may have known it, many are called but only few can be invited because of the constraint of the pandemic… Malou Mandanat-Rama… can you please stand up?” Rama said in his speech, after acknowledging other VIP guests.
Among the couple’s well wishers was Spanish Ambassador Gorge Moragas Sanchez, who congratulated the mayor and his wife during the event.
Rama was previously married to lawyer Araceli Lim Francisco, with whom he has two children. Their marriage was annulled in 2000.
Rama, who is running for Cebu City mayor in next year’s election, was single for the most part of his political career.
He first served the Cebu City Government in 1992 as a city councilor before being elected vice mayor from 2001 to 2010 and mayor from 2010 to 2016. He was elected vice mayor in 2019 and is the acting mayor at present after Mayor Edgardo Labella went on medical leave. (PAC of Superbalita Cebu)