Iloilo City, PSA sign pact on birth registration project

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the City Government of Iloilo signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) relative to the project entitled “PhilSys Birth Registration Assistance Project for the City of Iloilo” on Monday, October 10, 2022, held at Iloilo City Hall, Iloilo City.

The MOA was signed by OIC-Regional Director Nelida Amolar and Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas in the presence of OIC-Provincial Statistical Officer Jerry Dolutan and Acting City Civil Registrar Cherie Ampig.

The project aims to increase civil registration in marginalized communities, particularly those belonging to the Indigeneous Peoples (IP) and the poorest sector.

The Iloilo City Government has manifested their cooperation by allowing the conduct of Mobile Registration in the City of Iloilo to provide the said services to its constituents.

The goals and objectives of the said project are:

-to enhance for a more intensified campaign in improving civil registration aligned with the goals of the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Decade for 2015-2024;

-to register those unregistered births and other civil registry documents especially IPs and the poorest sector covering all the cities/municipalities in the province and in Iloilo City;

-assist in the processing of out-of-town registrations of births and other civil registry documents for unregistered residents in Iloilo City;

-verify from the PSA Civil Registry System database the existence of birth or other civil registry records to avoid double or multiple registration through Omnibus Certification;

-implement Philippine Civil Registry Information System (PhilCRIS) in mobile registrations; and

-register for the PhilID of the birth registrants.

The implementation of PhilSys Birth Registration Assistance Project (PBRAP) is a national initiative spearheaded by the National Statistician and Civil Registrar General of PSA to fulfill the country’s commitment to the 2015-2024 Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Decade under the goal of universal registration that by 2024, at least 99.5 percent of all Filipinos should have their birth registered with the local authorities and will be provided with the legal documentation thru the issuance of the birth certificate.

The project aims to strengthen the documentation of Step 2 registration of Republic Act No. 11055 (Philippine Identification System Act) by increasing the use of the birth certificate as the basic document to be presented by citizens seeking to register with PhilSys.

It also seeks to increase the level of civil registration especially in marginalized communities such as those belonging to the Indigenous Peoples, Muslim Filipinos, and the poorest sector in the country and ensuring that they have their PhilIDs issued which is a gateway for them to claim their social benefits and legal identity.

PSA-Iloilo Provincial Statistical Office started their operation on March 1 this year when they began to coordinate with the local government units in Iloilo (including Iloilo City) of the implementation of PBRAP.

They have collected data from the barangay levels and identify recepients. They have also attended mobile registrations in different municipalities in the Province, and assist the local civil registry office in the processing of late registrations of clients who do not have birth certificates yet.

OIC-PSO Jerry Dolutan and the PBRAP team together with the City Civil Registrar’s Office of Iloilo will hold mobile registrations in every barangay in Iloilo City starting this October 2022.

More than 7,000 recepients of the project in Iloilo City will be free of charges in the issuance of Certificate of Live Births (COLBs) in security paper and in the processing of verification and subsequent issuance of Omnibus Certification which will be catered by the PSA.