Culpability in birth certificate mess

The discovery last week of close to 200 falsified birth certificates issued to Chinese nationals from 2018 to 2019, all by the civil registry of one town in Davao, is a solid, incontrovertible proof of what lawmakers have been warning about since the probe on illegal drugs and crimes perpetrated by unlicensed Philippine offshore gaming operators started a few years back. Individuals, or more likely syndicates, are using the country’s late registration of birth to enable unwanted foreigners, most of them Chinese, to obtain valid Philippine passports, driver’s licenses, and other government-issued identification documents.

While the congressional investigations focused on big-time drug personalities and high-profile personalities such as suspended Mayor Alice Guo of Bamban town in Tarlac, it now proves that undesirable foreigners have been getting Philippine identities for various illegal activities on a bigger scale, and for many years now. Last Friday, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, citing information from within the Chinese community, claimed that a Chinese national had to shell out P300,000 to illegally obtain a valid Philippine birth certificate, passport, and driver’s license. The senator said “valid,” which means these documents were officially issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

Root of the problem

Finding culpability in this entire mess will be a tedious one that will require the joint involvement of many agencies, among them the PSA, the DFA, the LTO, the National Bureau of Immigration (NBI), and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). Gatchalian has raised the possibility that the erring individuals are within the PSA itself or the local government of Santa Cruz town in Davao del Sur where authorities discovered the falsified birth certificates.

However, in its search for the persons or syndicates taking advantage of the late birth registration system, the government should look at the root of the problem. While the senator puts the crux of the problem squarely on the PSA and the local government unit, they should start instead with the late birth certificate registration scheme.

The late registration process is a tedious one, if the rules are to be strictly followed. It begins at the Local Civil Registry (LCR) office of the municipality or town where a person was supposedly born. Under the law, a child’s birth must be registered at the LCR office no later than 30 days from the day the child was born; otherwise, the registration is deemed late or delayed. Unless a person’s birth is properly registered, he or she will not be able to obtain a PSA birth certificate, the primary requirement in a number of personal transactions such as applying for a passport for the first time, securing a driver’s license, enrolling in schools, and even for some financial transactions.

Delayed registration

The requirements, as listed by the PSA, should include four copies of the certificate of live birth duly accomplished and signed by the parties (the physician or midwife in attendance at the birth or, in their absence, either parent of the child involved), and a duly accomplished affidavit of delayed registration done by the father, mother, or guardian. The late registration must be filed at the Office of the Civil Registrar of the place where the person was born.

The most important part of the process, it must be highlighted, is that the application for delayed registration of birth “shall be examined by the civil registrar,” including the certificate of live birth and other submitted documentary requirements. The pending application must likewise be posted for 10 days on the bulletin boards of the city or municipality where the birth occurred, as a notice to the public. If no opposition or disagreement is received, the LCR can then proceed with the evaluation of the documents submitted and if all goes well, the LCR can register the birth.

Frightening societal menace

Lawmakers may suspect scalawags within the different government agencies issuing important documents and IDs such as passports and driver’s licenses. However, if they zero in on the LCR, particularly of remote and faraway towns, perhaps they can find the answer or answers to this frightening societal menace of undesirable aliens obtaining legitimate—but forged—documents and IDs. This may be a long process considering that data from the DILG as of March 31, 2023, showed that there were 148 cities and 1,486 municipalities across the country, each with its own LCR office.

The PSA relies solely on the authenticity of LCR documents, or the official registration of birth. In turn, the DFA, LTO, and other agencies issuing IDs and official documents rely solely on the authenticity of PSA documents. Therefore, ensuring the authenticity of the first document needed in all this, which is the birth registration certificate issued by the LCR, should be the starting point in addressing the whole problem.