Chiz, Heart set Feb. 15 wedding in Balesin

MANILA, Philippines - It’s been set and settled without any other bride and groom being bumped off.

Sen.Francis “Chiz” Escudero and celebrity fiancé Heart Evangelista are to exchange “I do’s” on Feb. 15, 2015.

Escudero disclosed to The STAR his wedding date with Evangelista after their much-publicized engagement last week.

The anticipated wedding of Escudero with the popular Kapuso actress is slated on Feb. 15 next year, which the senator insisted has nothing to do with his purported plans to run for higher office in the May 2016 presidential elections.

The 44-year-old senator (Independent) is on his second and last term in office ending June 2019. So, if he runs but loses, he can still return to the Senate.

Escudero brushed aside speculations by political wags that he would use his wedding for his 2016 campaign.

“How could that be when I ran and won in my Senate re-election in May last year without Heart, already my girlfriend at that time, ever helping me in my campaign?” Escudero pointed out.

In exclusive interview with The STAR, Escudero said they will have a separate and bigger reception in Manila the next day, to include all their other friends in politics and in the entertainment industry.

“But on our wedding day on Feb. 15, we plan to invite only about 100 people,” Escudero said. “We don’t want to have a circus-like wedding with so many people around.”

So far, the couple got confirmation from President Aquino as best man of the senator in the wedding entourage.

As for wedding godparents, he said, he and Evangelista are preparing their respective sets and will decide on the final list soon.

This will be the second marriage for Escudero after the court granted last July the annulment with his first wife, Christine Flores. He has seven-year-old twin children, Quinoa and Chesi, a boy and a girl, respectively, from his first wife. Escudero got custody of their children while the court gave visitation rights to his ex-wife.

Escudero said his children are very close to their “Tita Heart” and are looking forward to join the wedding entourage as ring bearer and flower girl.

“Before we got engaged, I asked my twins about their Tita Heart becoming their mother soon and they both said yes. Chesi even told me she is lucky to have two mothers,” Escudero said.

The wedding ceremonies will happen in the exclusive Balesin Island Club in Quezon province where only the couple’s respective families, relatives and very close friends will be invited.

According to earlier reports, the 29-year-old Evangelista and Escudero were keen on tying the knot on Feb. 14 next year, which would mean a triple celebration – Heart’s birthday, Valentine’s Day and their wedding.

Reports circulated in social media claimed that the actor-politician couple “bumped off” another couple’s wedding on Valentine’s Day at the exclusive island resort.

But Roberto Ongpin, who owns and runs Balesin, issued a statement yesterday to attest that indeed no other couple was reportedly “bumped off.”

“I wish everyone to know that it was I who actually invited Heart and Chiz to have their wedding at Balesin when I had dinner with them shortly after they returned from their trip to Paris sometime in July and even before they announced their formal engagement,” Ongpin said.