Birth certificate is very important as it is a document that establishes a person’s legal identity aside from the fact that it is among those required prior to securing other documents like passport and licenses.
During DZMM’s “Usapang de Campanilla, Editha Orcilla explained how an individual can correct an erroneous entry in birth certificate. Orcilla is the assistant national statistician of Civil Registration Service of the Philippine Statistics Authority.
According to her, the usual mistakes that were corrected in the certificate includes proper spelling of names, date of birth and gender. In cases like these, a petition for correction should be filed at Civil Registration Office where the birth certificate of an individual had been originally filed. The correction of entry would cost around P1,000.
On the other hand, for petitions made at another Civil Registration Office other than where the birth certificate has been originally filed, the cost may be more costly, around P 1,500.
More so, an individual who wishes to correct an entry in the birth certificate should bring the original copy of the birth certificate which needs to be corrected, two documents as basis for the correction such as school records, baptismal certificate and medical certificates and other documents that will support the fact that there was an error.
Apparently, after the petition had been submitted to the Civil Registration Office, it will be forwarded to the Philippine Statistics Authority for its approval. After which, it will be returned to the local Civil Registration Office for another approval and preparation of certificate of finality prior to its release.
The owner of the birth certificate should be the one to claim the said document.
However, Orcilla emphasized that they were not authorized to change what was originally written on the document. Rather, an annotation will only be made to indicate the correction.
“We are not allowed to change any entries in the record mismo. We cannot erase kasi tampering na po ‘yan. We just do the annotation.”
For Filipinos who are working abroad (OFWs), they can also have their erroneous birth certificate corrected by proceeding to the Philippine Embassy in the country where they are or they can issue an authorization letter to any of their relatives or whoever can apply the correction here in the Philippines.
Meanwhile, Orcilla clarified that if it is change of gender which will be applied, an individual should personally submit a medical certificate from a doctor who is duly accredited by the government.
Orcilla estimated that the processing of the corrected document will take about 3 months and stated that they do not have an online facility to process correction of erroneous entry in one’s birth certificate.
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