36K Bacolodnons with no birth certificate to be registered

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has partnered with the Bacolod City’s Office of the Local Civil Registrar in mobile birth registration to reach at least 36,000 residents without birth certificates.

Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said the city government is assisting the PSA to help those with unregistered births.

“The 36,000 is just an estimate. There will probably be more,” he added.

In a meeting at the Bacolod City Government Center last week, Benitez discussed with PSA Undersecretary Claire Dennis Mapa, national statistician and civil registrar general, the creation of a mobile registration unit to give residents in far-flung areas to process their birth registry in their location.

“I’m looking forward to our partnership in providing easy access to birth certificate registration and national identification (ID) system enrollment,” the mayor said.

He added that the PSA will also set up office at the Government Center to process the applications of Bacolodnons for the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys).

“We will assist them and in fact, extend that even further to do a community survey, a collection of information so we can better address services needed by the intended beneficiaries,” the mayor said.

Mapa said they provide assistance to those with unregistered births under the PhilSys Birth Registration Assistance Project for free.

“For those without birth certificates, we will process their registration together with the Civil Registrar.

Everything is free of charge until they can obtain the first copy of their PSA-issued birth certificate,” he added.

Last June 8, Mapa said they launched the first mobile birth registration in Barangay Handumanan, where he learned that some mothers have yet to register the births of their children who are already in school.

“The birth certificate is a very important document,” the PSA chief said, noting that it is usually part of school and work requirements.* (Nanette Guadalquiver)