PSA, CRAG discuss 2021 Plans and Programs

The Philippine Statistics Authority Guimaras Provincial Statistical Office (PSA-Guimaras) and the Civil Registrar’s Association of Guimaras (CRAG) of the five municipalities prepared and discussed their 2021 Plans and Programs in a small group year-end assessment and action planning workshop on December 4-5, 2020 held at the Raymen Beach Resort.

Activities lined up for the year 2021 that are common among the five municipalities include the conduct of mobile registrations, mass weddings, updating of MCRs citizen’s charter, conduct of activities for the Civil Registration Month, Issuance of Executive Order/Resolution on the institutionalization of the Barangay Civil Registration System (BCRS) in the four municipalities, Nueva Valencia already issued a Municipal Ordinance on the institutionalization of the BCRS in all its Barangays, and MCR’s assistance in the implementation of PhilSys ID or the National ID system in 2021 onwards.

Other MCRs identified unique activities for their municipality, such as Meeting with the Barangay secretaries to acquire list of unregistered individuals in Buenavista municipality; Serbisyo sa Barangay targeting 100% residents registered in 3-year time starting in 2021 by Jordan Municipality; BCRS training and creation of BCRS Council to oversee BCRS implementation and the hosting of the opening ceremony of the 2021 Civil Registration Month by Nueva Valencia Municipality.

Another purpose of the year-end assessment and action planning is to upgrade the participant’s knowledge on CRS laws and latest issuances, or Memorandum Circulars related to Civil Registration.

Registration Officer IV Mary Grace Dorilag of the Regional Statistical Services Office-6 discussed the following topics:

-MC 2019-15 “Guidelines on the issuance of the Civil Registry Documents (CRDs)/Certifications including Authentication.” This reminds the MCRs and staff of the requirements needed before processing vital events requested documents.

-MC 2019-16 “Strict Implementation of the Presentation of Valid Identification (ID) Cards/Identity Documents in the Issuance of Civil Registry Documents/Certifications from the PSA.”

-MC 2019-18 “Discontinuance of Red Ribbon Authentication of the DFA”. This MC states that the DFA will no longer issue Authentication Certificates from May 14, 2019 onwards. Instead, the DFA will affix APOSTILLE (without the red ribbon) as proof of authentication to documents for use abroad.

-MC 2019-27 “Guidelines in Filing of Multiple Requests for Copy Issuance, Authentication and Certification of CRDs from Authorized Representatives”. This highlights that PSA shall only accept two (2) application requests from authorized representative to streamline and speed up the process in the issuance of civil registry documents, ensure the security of the personal sensitive information, and support and strengthen anti-fixing campaign across all PSA Serbilis Outlets and other channels.

-MC 2020-11 “Rules Pertaining to the Standard Annotation that shall be entered on Affected Civil Registry Documents through Republic Act 9048, and Republic Act No. 10172 Petitions”

-MC 2020-13 “Guidelines in Annotating the Certificate of Marriage of the Parties to the Subsequent Marriage when the Absent Spouse in the First Marriage Reappeared”

-MC 2020-17 “Strict implementation of Decentralized Copy Annotation Processed (DeCAP)”

-Processing of Civil Registry documents affected by court decrees, and

-Annotation of Court Orders and Legal Instruments.