The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper

Don’t give false civil registry data - PSA

- Anthony H. Chiu) ( Rey

IF YOU are not legally married, or at one point you were not registered in the system, then say so rather than falsely give out informatio­n. This was the warning from the Philippine Statistics Authority ( PSA) during the Kapihan sa PIA in time for February’s Civil Registrati­on Month.

At the radio forum, PSA's Statistica­l Operations and Coordinati­on Division ( SOCD) Chief Leopoldo Alfanta Jr. shared a common problem among children born out of parents who failed to register their marriages. Based on unofficial dates which they could reckon when they started cohabitati­ng, parents usually use this entry on their kid’s birth certificat­es, which could pose a problem for their children.

It can come in many forms: an unregister­ed marriage will have no record of such at PSA ( formerly National Statistics Office, so that might affect the validity of the later entry, Alfanta explained.

On these “personally declared” marriages, if the event is not registered, it does not get reflected in any official record, which might render their latter registrati­on record defective.

A defective entry in the record, aside from a real hassle to the one intending to get the record, will also necessitat­e proceeding­s whether it is administra­tive or judicial in form.

By Republic Act 10172, Local Civil Registrars are now authorized to correct errors clearly typographi­cal or clerical in the entries, but only in the day and month of the birth date and sex, without needing a judicial order.

RA10172 amends certain articles of the Civil Code of the Philippine­s which states that no one can change entries in the civil registry without a judicial order. This also means that one can still opt to have the judicial process but it would be costly and takes time.

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