A total of 5, 153 persons who have no birth certificates in Aklan recently benefited from the pilot implementation of the Birth Registration Project (BRP) conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in various municipalities in the province.
The BRP, which started last 2021, facilitated the registration of the vital events of unregistered persons, mostly belonging to the poor and marginalized sector, and caused the free issuance of birth certificates in security papers to all the beneficiaries.
Out of the total number of registrations, 4,890, or 95%, were processed within the local civil registry offices in Aklan while 263, or 5%, were registered through out-of-town reporting.
Among the 17 municipalities, the highest number of recipients was recorded in Libacao with 790 beneficiaries (15%), followed by the municipality of Batan with 632 (12%), Malay with 564 (11%), Buruanga with 482 (9%), and Nabas with 401 (8%).
The rest of the local government units in Aklan have the following number of beneficiaries: Makato-348, Balete-346, Tangalan-280, Ibajay-279, Altavas-261, Madalag-192, Malinao-167, Numancia-115, Banga-109, Kalibo-76, Lezo-61, and New Washington-50.
Meanwhile, of the total number of out-of-town registrations, Malay had the highest with 41 (15.59%), followed by Batan with 38 (14.45%), Altavas with 36 (13.69%), Buruanga with 26 (9.89%), and Numancia and Tangalan with 25 (9.51%) beneficiaries, respectively.
The out-of-town reporting of birth is the process of registration wherein the birth certificate along with the supporting documents, are reviewed and received by the civil registrar in the LGU where the registrant is currently residing and forwarded and recorded to the registry office of the municipality where one was born.
According to Chief Statistical Specialist Antonet Catubuan, the BRP aims to give greater opportunity to persons who have no birth certificate and are struggling to acquire one because of lack of documents and resources to register their vital events.
“We know that the certificate of live birth is essential in establishing one’s identity and, thus, this paves their access to acquire the document in the most efficient manner possible,” Catubuan said.
She added that this project is in line with the campaign of the agency in Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Decade (CRVS) for 2015-2024 where every Filipino should have a birth certificate by the end of the period.
“Through this project, we can encourage the people to report their birth and that of their children because we have simplified the process,” Catubuan said.
To intensify the conduct of the registration, the PSA and LCRO conducted the mobile registration in selected barangays to further bring the services closer to the community and give them no reason to decline.
Aside from BRP, the PSA also currently implements the PhilSys Birth Registration Assistance Project which has a similar concept only that the scope of the latter was expanded nationwide.
The PSA urged the public to avail of this service by visiting the nearest local civil registry offices in their area.
