A Situation Report
Lourdes J. Hufana
Director, Civil Registration Department
NSO
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Background
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Current Situation
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 Vital Registration
 Legal and Institutional Framework
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Birth Registration Process
CRIS
DVSS
Level of birth registration
Birth Statistics
Implication
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Coordinating Mechanisms
Legal/Policy Reform
Capability Building/Awareness Raising
Systems/Integration of IT systems
Services/Certificates
Developments and Progress
Challenges and Way Forward

Vital registration in the Philippines has
gone through various significant
developments from the time it was legally
instituted as a system with the
ratification of Act No. 3753 (Civil
Registration Law) in 1930.
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As a state policy, the system mandates the
basic and compulsory registration of
all vital events and the accompanying
changes in the civil status of every Filipino
citizen.
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In terms of the system’s structure, the
Philippines presents a robust mechanism,
with its legally defined operational and
administrative setup, from the municipality,
where the unit of vital registration is
fixed to the central depository of vital
documents at the National Statistics
Office.
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Under Republic Act No. 7160 (Local
Government Code), civil registration is a
function of the local government
through the City/Municipal Civil
Registrar but is under the technical
supervision of the Civil Registrar
General who is the Administrator of the
National Statistics Office.
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Birth Registration Process
Person Responsible  City/Municipal Civil Registrar
(Attendant/BCRS)
Reglementary Period  30 days  C/MCR
 + 10 days  NSO/PO
 + 45 days  NSO/CO
Systems developed for the processing of civil
registry documents:
Civil Registry Information System (CRIS)  LCRO
Decentralized Vital Statistics System (DVSS)  NSO
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A Civil Registry Database Management
System designed to operate under LAN
environment.
CRIS was designed to further enhance the
civil registrar’s capability to attend to the
growing demand for civil registry documents
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Data Entry maintenance of Vital Events (birth,
marriage and death)
Monthly report submission
Certificate/letter generation
Record generation
Record Quality check
System Utilities
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Developed to strengthen Field Offices and be
more responsive to the statistical needs of
the Local Government Units
Decentralized encoding and processing civil
registry documents at the NSO Provincial
Offices
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Data Entry and maintenance of Vital Events
(Birth, Marriage, Death, Fetal Death, Court
Decrees and Legal Instruments)
Data report generation down to municipality
level (preliminary statistics)
Monthly report submission log
Transfer of LCRO and DVSS files to DVSS2K
Upload/transfer of Vital Events data to CF
(Central Facility); and
VE (Vital Event) record quality check
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The system of birth registration is supposed
to address the requirements of the entire
population, regardless of
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Ethnicity
Religion
Economic status and
Customary practices
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However, in the Philippines, as gleaned from
its political background and history, there are
fragments of the society that have
remained in their traditional culture.
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The levels of birth registration among
the marginalized sectors have been
very low, as validated in the census and
various local survey undertakings.
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Birth registration in 2000 was 89% (2000
Census) and it is estimated to reach 94% in
2007.
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94%
69%
76%
23%
in
in
in
in
NCR
Central Mindanao
Western Mindanao
ARMM
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The impact on unregistered births, especially
among children and youth from these
identified groups is critical to their
◦ Development;
◦ Welfare and well-being;
◦ In the course of realizing their potentials and
fulfilling their basic rights.
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The Philippines has initiated projects that
deal with the identification of birth
registration barriers; customary practices
on vital events occurring among the different
cultural minority groups and the
circumstances that affect the nonregistration of births of children in need of
special protection.
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In partnership with Plan Philippines, the
Unregistered Children Project and the Birth
Registration Project were conducted to
address legal and policy reforms that
will strengthened the birth registration
system, as well as dealing with the
difficulties and barriers in birth registration.
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At the LGU level,
◦ Ordinances were passed for the elimination
of registration fees;
◦ Priority were set for local civil registration
◦ Implementation of the Barangay Civil
Registration System (BCRS) – where birth
registration is facilitated at the village levels, thus
addressing economic and distance barriers.
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With the institutionalization of BCRS,
the community can now facilitate the
registration right there in their respective
communities without necessarily going to the
municipal centers.
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This is seen to be one effective solution in
breaking the barriers of all birth
registration, especially in hard to reach
communities, far-flung and remote areas and
in the marginalized sectors among Muslim
Filipinos and Indigenous peoples.
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At the national level, the project lobbied
extensively for the enactment into law of the
following:
◦ RA 9048 (Clerical Error Law);
◦ RA 9255 (Use of Father’s Surname for Illegitimate
Children) which address social barriers;
◦ RA 9858 (Legitimation of Children Born Parents
Below Marrying Age)
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Other policy reforms have been instituted to
address cultural barriers at the agency level
through the issuance of administrative orders
and memorandum circulars.
◦ Outlining birth registration guidelines for CNSP
cases;
◦ Procedures on birth registration for the Indigenous
peoples; and
◦ Supplementing the process of birth registration
system among Muslim Filipinos.
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In terms of systems, implementing rules and
regulations and the accompanying manual of
instructions for legal, administrative and
statistical use are regularly updated.
Operational guidelines on specific programs
are also disseminated in the field.
• Revised Civil Registry Forms (January 2007)
• Accomplishment and Coding
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In response to the new laws, policies, rules
and regulations passed related to civil
registration, the OCRG revised the civil
registry forms;
To address emerging concerns
To include more spaces for important items
like names. Date and place of event and the
remarks/annotation portion in some civil
registry forms;
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To include more information to ascertain the
identity, lineage and condition of the person
or the event being registered;
To ensure accuracy of information entered
even if the entry is misaligned in the
succeeding copies;
To consider archiving concerns.
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Statistical processing of the registered
documents takes into account manual and
machine processing using the Decentralized
Vital Statistics System (DVSS). The system
connects through the CRS-IT where it
electronically archived the vital documents.
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There is a on-going efforts to localize
awareness-raising publicity materials,
appropriate to the existing culture of
the target sectors. Thus, guidebooks,
brochures, jingle and infomercial are now
translated in two major dialects (Tagalog and
Cebuano).
NSO Civil Registry System Project
NSO Civil Registry System Project/Documents
Converted/Digitized
 As of November 8, 2010 for vital events
registered, 1945 – 2010
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◦ Births  96.02 Million
◦ Marriages  21.44 Million
◦ Deaths  17.86 Million
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NSO Outlets
◦ All Regional Centers (14)
◦ Selected provincial/city outlets (22)
◦ Metro Manila outlets (6)
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BREQS outlets (LGUs/TA/SM/Others)
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Selected LCR Offices (334)
Travel Agencies (29)
SM Malls (42)
Others (4)
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Crucial priorities for the policy advocacy
measures now focus on the amendment of
Act No. 3753. The proposed bill is
pending at the Congress.
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The BCRS is now in its implementation stage
in cities and municipalities where the Birth
Registration Project and Plan Philippines
Program Units operate. When the proposed
amendment of Act No. 3753 will be ratified,
BCRS will now become compulsory in
all local civil registration programs
and therefore, will be institutionalized
in all local government units
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Birth registration needs to be
sustained, revitalized and
strengthened by service providers at the
LGU levels (provision of budgetary
allocations, priority LGU programs,
computerization for CRIS, capability building
program for C/MCR/Staff)
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There is a need for provision of free
services in the remotest areas to
encourage poor communities and vulnerable
groups (marginal sectors) to exercise their
rights to registration at birth.
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The importance of birth registration as a legal
document is yet to be understood by our
communities thus, the lack of enthusiasm to
register children at birth. Requests for birth
certificates are influenced by economic
factors like securing a passport, visa or
getting employed. On a daily basis we deal
with request for the issuance of certificates in
SECPA (Security Paper).
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Implementation of revised civil registry forms
that contained additional critical information
for planning health programs and inputs to
health researchers, estimating maternal
and infant mortality, etc.
Integrity of civil registry documents and its
timely submission from the LGUs.
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Policy reforms addressing the improvement
of the civil registration systems among the
select sectors have already been put in place.
Necessary reforms have been instituted that
highlighted administrative and legal
structures in the implementation of
Act No. 3753.
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These changes have been carried out in terms
of policy development, public
advocacy and system innovation,
including registration procedures for
unregistered children among the
marginalized sectors of the population and
the hard to reach communities, specifically
with the indigenous cultural communities,
Muslim Filipinos and those in need of special
protection.
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The challenge now is to measure its
effectiveness and its impact on the level
of birth registration.