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Civil Registration is a very important aspect of our daily lives. In whatever form of society we may belong, it is our fundamental right to be registered and be counted. Civil status of persons must be recorded in the local civil register so that important rights may be exercised in order to receive the utmost protection and care in the place where we live. We, Local Civil Registrars, register the births of every citizen so that he will have a name and identity to be known in the community, to go to school, to travel, to be employed, to enjoy benefits and services and to exercise some civil rights. We may register the marriage of a man and a woman as a notice to the whole world about their contract to become husband and wife and will thus produce civil effects. We register the fact of death of a person in order to record the termination of his civil rights.
DUTIES AND FUNCTIONS
The Office of the Municipal Civil Registrar is responsible for the registration program in the municipality, which is a continuing process. It shall continuously carry out the duties and program responsibilities provided for in the pertinent laws, revised rules and regulations governing the application and enforcement of the Civil Registry Law (Act 3753), as incorporated in Rule 5, Administrative Order No. 1 Series 1993. It shall be responsible for the recording in appropriate registers, events that affect the civil status of individuals which are birth, marriage, death, annulment of marriage, declaration of void marriage, foundling, legal separation, legitimation, and judicial determination of filiations and emancipation of minors. The laws of this country provides that such recording be compulsory.
The office is also responsible for the safe filing, keeping and preserving in a secure place the registry books required by law. It shall issue certified transcript or copies of any certificate or registered documents upon payment thereof of the prescribed fees. It shall transmit to the Civil Registrar-General within the prescribed period of time the duplicate copies of registered documents required by law.
The civil registrar shall be responsible for the civil registration program in the local government unit concerned, pursuant to the Civil Registry Law, the Civil Code, and other pertinent laws, rules and regulations issued to implement them.
The Civil Registrar shall take charge of the office of the civil registry and shall:
Develop plans and strategies and upon approval thereof by the mayor, as the case may be, implement the same, particularly those which have to do with civil registry programs and projects which the mayor is empowered to implement and which the Sanggunian is empowered to provide for under this Code; In addition to the foregoing duties and functions, the civil registrar shall:
Accept all registrable documents and judicial decrees affecting the civil status of persons;
File, keep and preserve in a secure place the books required by law;
Transcribe and enter immediately upon receipt all registrable documents and judicial decrees affecting the civil status of persons in the appropriate civil registry books;
Transmit to the Office of the Civil Registrar-General, within the prescribed period, duplicate copies of registered documents required by law;
Issue certified transcripts or copies of any certificate or registered documents upon payment of the prescribed fees to the treasurer;
Receive applications for the issuance of a marriage license and, after determining that the requirement and supporting certificates and publication thereof for the prescribed period have been complied with, issue the license upon payment of the prescribed fee to the treasurer;
Coordinate with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in conducting educational campaigns for vital registration and assist in the preparation of demographic and other statistics for the local government unit concerned; and
Exercise such other powers and perform such other duties and functions as may be prescribed by law or ordinance.
Registrable Acts and Events:
Birth – is the complete expulsion or extraction of a product of conception from its mother, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy.
Death – is permanent disappearance of all evidence of life at any time after live birth has taken place.
Fetal Death – is the death prior to the complete expulsion of a product of conception, irrespective of the period of pregnancy.
Marriage – is the legal union of persons of opposite sex through a civil or religious ceremony by which the legal relationship as husband and wife is constituted.
Foundling – is a deserted or abandoned infant or child found with parents, guardians or relatives being unknown or a child committed in an orphanage or charitable or similar institution with unknown fact of birth or parentage.
Delayed Registration –refers to the registration of an event beyond the reglamentary period as specified in the existing laws, rules and regulations.
Court Decree – is a judicial order that affects the civil status of person, e.g., legal separation, annulment of marriage, and adoption.
Legal Instrument – is a sworn statement in a form of affidavit which affects the civil status of person, e.g., legitimation, acknowledgment and marriage settlements.