Makati to issue birth, marriage, death certificates for free on Thursday

MANILA, Philippines - The Makati City government will issue on Thursday certified true copies of birth, marriage and death certificates free of charge to those requesting them.

Makati City Civil Registration Offie (CCRO) chief Josephine Copada said the special one-day free issuance of civil registry documents is open to both residents and non-residents. The processing and issuance of the documents normally take three days, the CCRO said.

Copada said clients with rush requests that take only about an hour to process will still have to pay P152 for one copy, but will be given one additional copy for free. As for those who will request for an National Statistics Office authenticated copy, the CCRO will issue one extra copy for free but not on Security Paper, so it will be for local use only, she said.

The CCRO office is located at the 3rd floor of Makati City Hall main building, and is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with no noon break.

Meanwhile, the City Civil Registrar also reminded the public, especially parents and teachers, about the proper way of writing names with suffixes based on the Civil Code. She also urged parents to check for any discrepancies or errors on their child’s birth certificate compared to their school records so that corrections can be promptly made under Republic Act 9048, correction of names and other clerical errors.

In the accomplishment of civil registry forms, entries such as “Jr.” or “II” affixed to an individual’s first name are acceptable as added identification, to distinguish him or her from an ascendant of the same name. Only sons may use the suffix “Jr.” On a legal form, suffixes must immediately follow the first name, as in: Juan Jr. or Miguel III.

However, a father’s name need not have the suffix “Senior” or “Sr.” when filling up legal forms or documents, since this is not reflected in his birth certificate. Such suffixes may be used as a father’s social title only.

Punctuation marks in names, such as period or hyphen, are counted as a character and must not be omitted when filling up official forms. For two-word last names like Dela Cruz, the first letter of the first word must be used as middle initial, “D”. 

As part of Makati’s advocacy for zero unregistered births, the city government has been implementing its Civil Registration sa Barangay (CRESBA) program through the CCRO. The City Council in February 2012 passed City Ordinance No. 2012-011 authorizing the temporary suspension of payments for delayed registration of births processed through CRESBA. The waiver covers Civil Registry fees for delayed processing of unregistered births and issuance of Certificates of No Record by the Makati CCRO, as well as the P40 LGU fee for the issuance of Negative Certificate of Birth by the National Statistics Office.

For March the CCRO has scheduled CRESBA at Brgy Pio del Pilar, March 1; Pembo, March 8; and San Isidro, March 15. The schedule for the second quarter is as follows: April 12 - Comembo; April 19 - Palanan; May 3 - West Rembo; May 10 - San Antonio; May 31 - Cembo; June 7 - La Paz; and June 14 - Guadalupe Nuevo.

The third quarter schedule will start on July 5 - Singkamas; July 12 - Pinagkaisahan; July 19 - Kasilawan; July 26 - Pitogo; August 2 - Olympia; August 9 - South Cembo; August 16 - Valenzuela; Sept. 6 - Guadalupe Viejo; Sept. 13 - Tejeros; Sept. 20 - Northside; and Sept. 27 - Sta. Cruz.

For the last quarter, Oct. 4 - Southside; Oct. 11 - Carmona; Oct. 18 - Poblacion; Oct. 25 - Bel-Air; Nov. 8 - Dasmariñas; Nov. 15 - San Lorenzo; Nov. 22 - Magallanes; Dec. 6 - Urdaneta and Dec. 13 - Forbes Park.

For more information, the CCRO is reachable at telephone numbers 8701330 or 8701345.