Skip to main content

Synthesis and Directions


Dennis S. Mapa, Ph.D.
Undersecretary
National Statistician and Civil Registrar General

1st National Convention on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics
02 September 2021

To all our participants, good afternoon.

After hearing the different presentations of our resource speakers yesterday and today which tackled very interesting, timely, and informative topics on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, allow me to give the synthesis of the different action matters and our future direction on civil registration and vital statistics.

Most of the issues raised during the different sessions need to be addressed and require attention and specific actions to achieve our targets and goals.

Regional Action Framework (RAF) for the CRVS Decade 2015-2024

Birth Registration

Under Goal 1 of the Regional Action Framework which is the “Universal civil registration of births and deaths”, the targets by 2024 are:

1) At least 99.0 percent of births in the territory and jurisdiction in the given year are registered;

2) At least 99.5 percent of children under 5 years old have had their birth registered; and

3) At least 99.5 percent of all individuals have had their birth registered.

The latest available data is based on the 2015 Census of Population and Housing which provides 94.9 percent of the total population whose births have been registered with the Local Civil Registry Offices.

We still have 5.1 percent of the total population that needs to be registered. The latest available data of 2015 Census of Population showed that the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or BARMM had the lowest birth registration at 57.5%, followed by Region XII-SOCCSKSARGEN at 86.6%, and Regions VIII-Eastern Visayas, and Region IX-Zamboanga Peninsula at 90.2%.

Therefore, the following must be done:

  • Initiate collaboration projects with Local Government Units and other stakeholders to increase level of birth registration.

    Ongoing projects with the Philippine Statistics Authority and other partners include that of the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Peace Process for the registration of Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Moro National Liberation Front combatants and Birth Registration Project in Aklan with IDEALS on the registration of Indigenous Peoples. We hope to replicate the Birth Registration Project in selected provinces with low level of birth and death registration by next year.

  • Continue initiatives to conduct mobile registrations following restrictions imposed both by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases and local government units.

    I enjoin all Local Civil Registrars in coordination with the Sub-National Inter-Agency Committee on CRVS to continue to provide services and be innovative in the conduct of mobile registrations.

  • Review, for streamlining, processes and documentary requirements and adopt new technology in facilitating online registration.

    The Local Civil Registry Offices should also be flexible and innovative in using new technologies to simplify and make civil registration services convenient and accessible to our clients; and

  • Issuance of Joint Memorandum Circular on the Revised Guidelines on the Delayed Registration of Birth between the Department of the Interior and Local Government and PSA prescribing the requirements and process for delayed registration of births including the standard fees for all Local Civil Registry Offices. This Joint Memorandum Circular is currently being finalized.

Death Registration

The target level of 90.0% completeness of death registration for the period 2015 to 2020 has been achieved based on our CRVS Mid-Decade Assessment. However, more work is to be done on death registration to cover the remaining 10% which include, among others, death registration of Muslims, Indigenous Peoples (IPs), and other marginalized sectors. The PSA, Local Civil Registry Offices, and stakeholders must work together to increase death registration.

The following must be done to increase the completeness of death registration and to improve the quality of the causes of death statistics:

  1. Intensify campaign on birth registration and other civil registry documents through different platforms: regular radio programs, social media, and CRVS webinars.

    I enjoin all Sub-National Inter-Agency Committees and our Local Civil Registry Offices to support the Office of the Civil Registrar General’s initiatives in the campaign for timely registration of deaths.  

  2. Initiate special projects to increase death registration especially for Muslim and Indigenous Filipinos. A collaboration project with government agencies, private sectors, and stakeholders to facilitate timely registration of vital events can be done, through the conduct of regular mobile registrations especially in remote areas where civil registration services is difficult and for waiving the necessary fees for registration.
     

  3. Improving our quality of causes of death statistics through capacity building such as conduct of trainings, seminars, and workshops to medical records officers and local health officers in the proper accomplishment of death certificates including the cause of death certification and continuous training on the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems or ICD 10.
     

  4. In the Mid-decade Assessment, the PSA, in partnership with the Department of Health, needs to conduct more trainings to improve the quality of the causes of deaths by reducing half of the baseline target of 0.9% on the ill-defined causes of registered deaths by the health facilities. Our data showed that in 2020, 1.2% of the total registered deaths facilitated by the health facilities were ill-defined which is more than the baseline.

Civil Registration Laws and Policy Issuances

There is a need to explore the amendment of several administrative issuances and alignment of policies to adopt to the digitization of the entire civil registration system.

There is a need for PSA in collaboration with University of the Philippines Law Center, Inter-Agency Committee on CRVS and Philippine Association of Civil Registrars to continue to lobby for the amendment of the Civil Registration Law (Act No. 3752) to introduce a comprehensive, responsive, and culturally sensitive civil registration and vital events system and e-digitization of the civil registry system in the country.

We will issue relevant issuances to address concerns on the registration of solemnizing officers. We will explore the possibility of administrative amendment to expand the effectivity of the Certificate of Registration of Authority to Solemnize Marriage (CRASM) from three years to five (5) or ten (10) years.

With all the initiatives to improve the law and policies related to civil registry, a parallel strategy will also be in placed to address security and data privacy concerns.

Reporting and Registration Process of Vital Events of Filipinos Abroad

As discussed by Assistant Secretary Senen Mangalile of the Department of Foreign Affairs on issues brought up during the open forum, the Office of the Civil Registrar General needs to review and issue guidelines with regard to the emerging issues abroad on naming conventions, gender, reassignment, same-sex marriage, surrogacy and online marriages. In fact, the Civil Registration Service and Legal Service of the PSA conducted in April to May 2021 four (4) consultative forums with the Department of Foreign Affairs regarding naming conventions.

In line with our commitment to “Get Everyone in the Picture” and ensuring that no one is left behind, there is a need to continue the Special Consular Mission for the registration of undocumented Filipinos in Sabah, a collaboration project between the Department of Foreign Affairs, PSA, and the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur using the “online” process and PhilCRIS for encoding and printing of civil registry forms.

Philippine Identification System (PhilSys)

The pandemic has slowed down the registration process of PhilID but different strategies have been implemented by the PSA to meet the committed targets. As of August 26, 2021, 41,061,302 for Step 1 registrations were completed, followed by a total of 27,632,464 validated data and captured biometrics, while a total of 1,745,067 bank accounts had been opened out of 5,219,062 individuals who on-boarded for a bank account.

Based on the “Updates on PhilSys ID” discussed by Deputy National Statistician Rosalinda Bautista on concerns from the participants, the following are to be done:

  1. Formulation of new strategies in the registration process aligned with the current situation and based on the guidelines prescribed by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases and local government units.

  2. Development of new PhilCRIS that allows the assignment of the PhilSys Number to the child upon birth registration and linking of death certificate to the National ID System.

  3. Policy issuance for the specific guidelines on how to correct the different errors in the information in the National ID, only on typographical errors made by Philippine Registry Office’s staff and not on the documentary requirements submitted.

  4. Intensify registration campaign on PhilID in collaboration with the government agencies to accept to government and private transactions (Advisory, webinar).

Develop Use-CASE PhilID validation for government and private sectors. The Philsys will be piloted with the PSA Civil Registration Service at sixteen (16) Civil Registration System Outlets nationwide in eleven (11) regions.