Free birth registration for Botolan Aetas

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines — The municipal government of Botolan in Zambales will provide free birth registration to Aetas and other indigenous peoples who don’t have the means to secure documents from the office of the local registrar.

Botolan Mayor Jun Omar Ebdane said his office supports the PhilSys Birth Registration Assistance Project (PBRAP) and has provided an initial fund of P98,500 for the registration of Aetas living in the remote village of Maculcol.

“The project will benefit a lot of our Aeta brothers and sisters, most of whom cannot afford to pay for the birth registration of their children,” Ebdane said during the launch of the PBRAP program in Zambales last week.

“The local government of Botolan allocated P1 million for the establishment of a PSA or Philippine Statistics Authority office in Botolan to sustain the program,” he said.

Eight Aeta children from Barangay Maculcol became the first beneficiaries of the PBRAP program.

The children received their certificates of live birth in PSA security paper during a ceremony held at the Travelers Hotel in Subic on Nov. 11.

PSA Zambales chief statistical specialist Norman Bundalian said the beneficiaries became the first in Central Luzon to receive free negative certification or free verification from the agency.

Civil registrar Clevelyn Deliquina said there are 2,403 slots for the free registration of Botolan Aetas.