Lawmaker bats for reforms in civil registration system

MANILA, Philippines - With 7.5 million Filipinos unregistered, a lawmaker has pushed for a new law that will bring wide-ranging reforms to the country’s civil registration system.

Misamis Oriental Rep. Juliette Uy filed House Bill 3753 or “An Act Providing for a More Responsive Civil Registration System and for Other Purposes” that seeks to replace the antiquated law on registry of civil status.

Among the provisions of HB 3753 is to enable the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and frontline government civil registration workers – the municipal and city registrars – to have all citizens get their birth certificates at no cost for the first copy, and help widen citizens’ access to their birth, marriage and death certificates at the municipal and city levels.

“This measure will make it easier for our citizens, especially the people from the far-flung provinces, to get registered. It will minimize costs and eventually enable government to have civil registration statistics in real time. This will facilitate effective social services planning and delivery,” Uy said.

“It is in the best interest of government to have a reliable civil registration system that is efficient and responsive to our needs as a people and is appropriately aligned with international standards.

“We seek a new law to simplify our civil registration system with the application of appropriate technologies to standardize our civil registration procedures to aid the national government, local government units and the general public in the planning and delivery of social services to our citizens,” she added.

The PSA, formerly the National Statistics Office, has estimated that there are around 7.5 million unregistered Filipinos as of 2010.

The measure was strongly endorsed by Philippine Association of Civil Registrars and civil society groups like PLAN International Philippines.

Marco Savio, deputy country director of PLAN International in the Philippines, said a responsive and functional national civil registration system is crucial to achieving universal birth registration.

He said birth registration fulfills a child’s right to a name and nationality, as enshrined in Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

“Birth registration is a critical life event that can ‘make or break’ a child’s future. Children whose births are not registered are invisible. Because of this, they are more vulnerable to trafficking, forced labor, abuse and exploitation. Without a birth certificate, children may be denied access to legal, economic and social rights, such as rights to health care, education and protection,” Savio said.