LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- Residents of Baguio City and this province are very much aware of the importance of the civil registration document, officials said on Friday.
"We are 99 percent aware of civil registration because people come for correction in our offices. They are aware of the birth certificate they have to register even if a little late, but they always register," said Joan Solano-Bacoling, La Trinidad Municipal Civil Registrar (MCR) and president of the Association of Baguio-Benguet Civil Registrars (ABBCR) during the press conference for the 2019 Civil Registration Month.
Bacoling noted that people who see an error in their documents that come from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) immediately file for a correction or supplementation.
"People in Baguio and Benguet know the importance of the certificates from the PSA and the local civil registry," she said, noting that on average, La Trinidad, Benguet's capital town, receives 300 clients to register a birth, marriage or death; correct an error or supplement to replace a "baby boy" or "baby girl; and other services facilitated by their office.
Bacoling added that the target is a 100-percent registration of births, marriages and deaths.
PSA-Cordillera Director Villafe Alibuyog added that based on the report of the local civil registrars in Benguet, there were more deaths recorded in 2017 and 2018.
This could be due to the actual increase in deaths due to the typhoons in 2018 and due to information that deaths need to be registered.
Data from PSA-Benguet showed that a total of 25,641 records were received by the office for birth, marriage and death registration in 2018, slightly higher than 25,541 in 2017.
Records of deaths in 2018 increased to 4,427 from 4,127 in 2017.
"People are appreciating the need to have document registered and to fix errors in existing ones because of the information education campaign being conducted by the civil registry officers and the PSA," Alibuyog said.
She also talked about the importance of statistics, of being listed in the registry, which is the basis for the decision-making of the government in coming up with programs.
On Jan. 28, 1991, then president Corazon Aquino signed Proclamation No. 682 declaring February as Civil Registration Month.