“Pambihira.”
A traffic control chief quipped of being initially nervous when he was greeted with a wedding invitation patterned after an electricity bill statement.
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) traffic control chief Edison “Bong” Nebrija on Saturday shared a picture of an invite to the nuptial of reporter Luisito Antonio Santos and radio disc jockey Joy Babor or DJ Lyka Barista.
“‘Yung akala mong Notice of Disconnection, ngayon pala Notice of Invitation!” he wrote on his Facebook account on March 18.
“Pambihara, LA and Joy, pinakaba [niyo] ako dun, ah. Akala ko Meralco, ngayon pala Mahalco! Hahaha, the most unique invitation I ever had,” Nebrija continued.
The invitation featured a logo and font inspired by Meralco, an electric power distribution company.
Instead of a voltage symbol, however, the logo featured an outline of a heart. It also bore the name “MAHALCO” instead of MERALCO, the stylized spelling of the electric firm’s short name.
Its full name is Manila Electric Company.
Nebrija’s post has earned a whopping number of 10,000 likes and laughing reactions, as well as 1,400 shares on the social networking platform.
The bride, Babor, also left a joke in the comments.
“Nong, may disconnection notice ‘yan sa loob. ‘Wag mo kalimutan bayaran, ha? Este pumunta sa wedding day,” she wrote with rolling-on-the-floor laughing emojis.
Meanwhile, other Facebook users agreed with the MMDA official’s sentiments about receiving billing statements.
“Kahit ako sir, kakabahan sa bill,” a Pinoy commented on Nebrija’s post.
“Isa to sa malakas magpatibok ng puso, sir,” another online user wrote with a laughing-with-tears emoji.
“Nakakabahala namang invitation ‘yan,” wrote a different Filipino.
Nebrija tagged the couple after a showbiz website reported about the viral post days after.
“Luisito Antonio Santos and Joy Babor, ‘yan alam na ng buong bayan. Best wishes! Simple lang regalo ko, mag-viral kayo,” he wrote on Facebook with laughing-with-tears emojis.
“Hahaha! Isang karangalan po!” Santos responded to him in the comments.
“Walang katumbas na halaga, hindi matutumbasan ng pagtubos sa lisensya at piyansa,” the groom added with laughing-with-tears emojis.
The couple said that both of them thought of patterning their wedding invite to that of an electric bill.
“Paano ba nila tayo hindi makakalimutan?” Santos said to Spot.ph before.
“Lagi kasi inaabangan tapos iingatan, para hindi makalimutang bayaran,” he added, referring to the Meralco bill.
“Target na talaga namin maging kakaiba ang invitation namin,” the groom continued.
“Since wala pa nakakagawa nito, kami na ang nag-layout, kami na bumili ng mga materials, at kami na rin nag-print,” Santos further said.
The inside of the invite also bore the head “INVITATION NOTICE,” as seen on Spot.ph’s report.
Meanwhile, Meralco usually delivers a customer’s billing statement through snail mail, although they also have the option to receive it via e-mail or through their Meralco Online account.
The billing statement contains the monthly electric consumption of an individual in their house, office, or other sites where they are based.
It also includes the total amount that they needed to pay for their electricity.
As of March, the firm said that “higher generation charge” will increase power rates.
This means that the overall rate of a typical household will increase from last month’s P10.8895 per kilowatt hour to P11.4348 per kWh.
