President Benigno Aquino   recently signed into  law a bill that extends the power of local civil registrars to correct errors in birth certificates with the affected parties not having to go to court.

 Republic Act 10172 amended several provisions of Republic Act 9048 or the clerical or typographical error law, Rep. Mercedes Alvarez (Neg. Occ., 6th District), one of the principal authors of the new law, said yesterday.

The new law  extends the coverage of exemptions to requirement of judicial approval for correction on entries in the birth certificate, she said.

Under the new law, the city or municipal registrar may correct clerical or typographical errors in the day and month of date of birth or gender without a court order, she said.

The new law also specifies where the fees for corrections in the birth certificate should go, she added.

“The fees collected by the city or municipal civil registrar or consul general pursuant to this Act shall accrue to the funds of the Local Civil Registry Office concerned or the Office of the Consul General for modernization of the office and hiring of new personnel and procurement of supplies, subject to government accounting and auditing rules,”  Section 8 of RA 10172 states.

“I filed this bill on Aug. 11, 2010 due to my experience as a practicing lawyer. Going to the courts is costly, you spend about P20-30,000 and it is  time-consuming. The whole court process causes delay in processing papers for job employment, board examinations, pension claims, etc.,” Alvarez said.  

Alvarez said she sought  the support of Senator Francis Escudero as chair of the Senate committee on justice, who  was  instrumental in the passage of this law on August 19.*CPG

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