It has come to our attention that a number of our countrymen received the wrong information regarding the recently approved Republic Act (RA) 10172 entitled “An Act Further Authorizing the City or Municipal Civil Registrar or the Consul General to Correct Clerical or Typographical Errors in the Day and Month in the Date of Birth or Sex of a Person Appearing in the Civil Register Without Need of a Judicial Order Amending for this Purpose Republic Act Numbered Ninety Forty-Eight.”
Thus, the NSO-Office of the Civil Registrar General (OCRG) issues this statement to clarify important matters and for the proper guidance of the general public:
- On the Payment of Fees. There is no truth to the rumor that there is no payment that will be involved in the filing of petitions for corrections of clerical errors in the day and month in the date of birth or sex of a person appearing in the civil register pursuant to RA 10172.
Section 4 of the Act clearly states that “The city or municipal registrar or the consul general shall be authorized to collect reasonable fees as a condition for accepting the petition. An indigent petitioner shall be exempt from the payment of the said fee.”
An indigent petitioner as defined in Rule 2.7 of Administrative Order No. 1, series of 2001 of the Office of the Civil Registrar General[1] refers to a destitute, needy and poor individual who is certified as such by the social welfare and development office of the city/municipal government.
- On the Processing Period. There is no provision in RA 10172 that specifies that it will only take 15 days for the complete administrative process of effecting the correction of clerical errors in the day and month in the date of birth or sex of a person as appearing in the civil register.
It is likely that the requirement of publication of the petition for at least once a week for two (2) consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation as stipulated in Section 5 (Form and Contents of the Petition) of the Act was misinterpreted to mean as the processing period. We would like to make it clear that the publication is just one of the requirements and is only a stage in the implementation of the Act.
- On where to File the Petition. According to reports that reached the NSO-OCRG, apparently an announcement has been made instructing citizens who would like to avail of the provisions of RA 10172 to proceed to the NSO to file their petitions.
We would like to reiterate that RA 10172 simply expanded the coverage of the correction of clerical or typographical errors in the civil register without judicial order as earlier provided for in RA 9048. Moreover, Section 1 of both laws stipulates that the authority to change or correct entries in the civil register is vested on the concerned city or municipal registrar or consul general.
Thus, all petitions for the correction of clerical errors in the day and month in the date of birth or sex of a person as appearing in the civil register must be filed with the Local Civil Registry Office (LCRO) of the city or municipality or with the Office of the Consul General where the record containing the clerical or typographical error to be corrected is registered and not with the NSO.
RA 10172 is a consolidation of Senate Bill No. 3113 and House Bill No. 4530 which aims to relieve the inconvenience of going through court proceedings from individuals with inaccurate entries in the day and month in the date of birth or sex in their civil registry documents.
We are aware that there are a number of persons who are eager to avail of the provisions of the new law. We would like to inform them that the NSO-OCRG is currently in the process of drafting the Administrative Order that will contain the rules and regulation for its effective implementation. Once finalized, it will be published in a newspaper of general circulation.
(Sgd) CARMELITA N. ERICTA
Administrator
[1] Rules and Regulation Governing the Implementation of Republic Act No. 9048