A tale of a public servant’s costly ignorance

I am writing to share the experience of my grandson, Zean Kristof C. Reyes, when he applied for a passport. I was very confident all the documents needed were there and were in order, except that his birth certificate, NSO-certified, did not carry the address of Ospital ng Maynila, which is, of course, Manila. So, it appearing that he has no precise place of birth, his application was not processed and he was advised to go to the Civil Registry of Manila for proper documentation.

The neglect (I call it ignorance) of one J.N. Aguiles, R.O. 11 of the Civil Registrar of Manila, caused us a lot of stress, not to mention my grandson’s chance to leave for Dubai to be with his father sooner.

This is now the problem: The processing of the new birth certificate will take four months and it has to be certified by the National Statistics Office. For registration, we are charged P1,000; for a certified photocopy, P320 (this is too much!); and for transmittal fee, P250. (These are provided for in Republic Act No. 9048. Whoever thought of these exorbitant fees was probably thinking that these costs are very affordable to ordinary Filipinos.)

In addition, my grandson has to have the following documents before an addendum could be done: (1) latest copy of birth certificate to be corrected; (2) two photocopies of a certification from the hospital indicating its exact address; (3) two photocopies of the personal records of the document owner (with place of birth); (4) school records; (5) voter’s
registration record/voter’s affidavit (Commission on Elections), (6) two photocopies of valid ID of the petitioner and of the document owner of Special Power of Attorney if the petitioner is not the document owner, and (7) an interview of the petitioner.

We reside in Bicol, and going to Manila entails, of course,
resources and time. Travel is long and, at my age (78; also I am my grandson’s guardian), is simply hard.

I hope those who fill out birth certificates should be very careful not to omit any information that may cause their clients unnecessary trouble, stress, etc.

JOKEE BOTOR-REYES, Iriga City