Philippino Birth Certificate Changes

[Braddo]

I am hoping some one in the forum can help with advise on how to get our brother in -laws birth certificate changed Our brother in-law works for the Balamban ship building company as a qualified steel welder I have an oportunity to bring him to Australia on a workers visa to work on the Gas pipelines here, we have all his documents and paperwork thats is required but unfortunatly we have found that on his birth certificate he has been put down as a female not male. He has just been married to my wifes sister earlier this year and nothing had been said by priest or anyone else about his birth certificate, he didn't even know it had the mistake. Now after he has gone to the immigration office to ask how to get this fixed they said he had to go to a judge then to re apply for a new certificate cost quoted was nearly P60,000 I know things work in funny ways in the PI but shorly if the births office had made the mistake about being male or female can't he just go to an office relating to this and get a new certificate instead of doing the run around and contributing to everyones pocket I relize that a donation will have to be paid under the table somewere but as long as it is not thousands I don't mind, I just think that here is an opportunity to set our family and his up over there and now it is going down the drain because of an errow no fault of his own Has anyone got any ideas on what I need to do to get this fixed I would be very gratefull Cheers Braddo

[Candyman]

This happened to us to, and here is what I wrote about it at the time :

Wrong Birth CertificateAlmost two years ago, my sister in law, Living in Cebu, discovered that she was incorrectly listed as a "male" instead of "female" on her Birth certificate, and needed to get that changed, just so as she could apply for a passport. Well, the BS involved with all this, you simply would not believe. She had to go, to her place of birth, and get affidavits off the people there, saying she was in fact a girl, and born on that date, then she had to go to every school she ever attended and get signed statements off the headmasters, saying she was who she said she was, plus, the priest presiding over her baptismal.She has also had four separate court appearances, so far, within the past two years, and still nothing has been changed ! She is still listed as a "Male" on the Birth certificate ! We have employed a couple of different lawyers, and an immigration agent, as well, at the cost of tens of thousands of pesos so far, and still nothing is resolved.Incidentally, and connected to this saga, her sister, Emilyn, also wanted a passport at the same time. Her Birth certificate was correct, EXCEPT, for a different date of marriage for her parents ! In this family there are five sisters and a brother, (including my wife, who has had a passport for years). Anyway, on further investigation, it was found that five out of the six kids, had different marriage dates for their parents written on their Birth certificates !The parents had to go back to the place of marriage, find the priest, and the witnesses, and get sworn statements off all of those, then they had to go back to court to get this anomaly fixed, which they did. Consequently, Emilyn's Birth certificate was changed by the court to reflect the proper wedding date, and in due time, a passport was issued to her, and we had her out here for a visit for three months, in late 2009 !Her sister, however is still in limbo, with the male to Female mistake, and she is due to go back to court again, next month ! Whether or not common sense will prevail this time is anybodies guess, but I for one am heartily sick of it, I even said to her she might have to flash the judge to prove it ! I even offered to inspect her gender for free, and sign a sworn statement to the effect that she is a girl !She is, and always has been a girl, and is also the mother of a little boy, so I really cannot see why it is taking so long, and at such great expense, to fix a mistake that simply should not have happened in the first place !

This saga is still ongoing, 2 1/2 years later, and I found an interesting article here :

Is there a law that can correct wrong civil registry entries?BY PERSIDA ACOSTADEAR PAO,I found out that my gender in my birth certificate is erroneously entered as Male. I went to the Office of the Civil Registrar of Manila to have it corrected but they said that they cannot do anything about it because I was registered in Quezon City. But when I went to the Office of the Civil Registrar in Quezon City, the personnel there said that I need to go to court for its correction. Isn’t there a law that allows correction of entries without going to court? I am tired being pointed to different offices. I wish you can help me.MaeDear Mae,We understand the frustration that you are experiencing for not being able to correct the error in your birth certificate. However, you have to understand that we have certain rules and procedures that we need to follow in order to effect changes in our birth certificates. It is true that there is a law which allows the correction of entry in birth certificates without going to court. This is Republic Act No. 9408 otherwise known as the Clerical Error Law. However, not all kinds of errors can be corrected under this law. Section 1 of RA 9408 provides that only clerical or typographical errors in civil register may be corrected or changed by the concerned city or municipal civil registrar or consul general in accordance with this law and its Implementing Rules and Regulations. A clerical or typographical error is defined as a mistake committed in the performance of clerical work in writing, copying, transcribing or typing an entry in the civil register that is harmless and innocuous, such as misspelled name or misspelled place of birth or the like, which is visible to the eyes or obvious to the understanding, and can be corrected or changed only by reference to other existing record or records, provided, however, that no correction must involve the change of nationality, age, status, or sex of the petitioner (Section 2(3), ibid). (emphasis supplied)It can be gleaned from the foregoing that the error in your gender is not among the errors which can be administratively corrected by the Civil Registrar. As correctly pointed out by the personnel of the Office of the Civil Registrar of Quezon City, you need to go to court to correct such error. You may do so by filing a Petition for Correction of Entry under Rule 108 of the Rules of Court in the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City, where your record of birth is registered. Upon filing of the petition, the court shall order the time and place of the hearing and that reasonable notice be given to the persons named in the petition. It shall likewise order its publication once a week for three (3) consecutive weeks, in a newspaper of general circulation in the province where the petition is filed (Section 4, rule 108). The court may either grant or deny the petition. In either case, certified copy of the judgment shall be served upon the civil registrar concerned who shall annotate the same in his record.Finally, we wish to remind you that this opinion is solely based on your narration of facts and our appreciation of the same. The opinion may vary if other facts are added or elaborated.We hope that we were able to address your concern.Editor’s note: Dear PAO is a daily column of the Public Attorney’s Office. Questions for Chief Acosta may be sent to dearpao@manilatimes.netFull Article Here : http://www.manilatim...gistry-entries/

I hope this gives some insight. Good luck !

[Jollygoodfellow]

My wife just had something fixed on her mothers birth certificate just last week,what I am not sure but I will see what I can find out.

[Braddo]

Thanks Candyman and Bossman for your reply's as they say only in the Philippines bloody Unreal Cheers Guys

[Steve & Myrlita]

Thank God Myrlita's birth certificate is correct. What a nightmare it would be if it wasn't. Personally, I think it's a scam the govt does here to feed its greed for the peoples money.

[Garpo]

If you were a Philippine citizen then why could you not just hire an attorney and file a case against the hospital, doctor, or who ever screwed up? I would think that they would want to resolve the situation as soon as possible rather than having to pay thousands of peso in damages and costs? Maybe somebody has already tried that and found it does not work but it makes sense to me.

[Bundy]

At some point i believe the Philippines is going to price itself out of existence. What a load of horsesh&t! I've heard of cases like this before but never any reasonable solution. Mate, the only thing i would suggest is to see a "reputable" lawyer there ( if such a thing exists ) to find out exactly where you stand. Until you hear it from someone in authority we could play guessing games all night and be no closer to the truth. Also i'd like to bet that what has worked for someone in the past may not work in your case as Philippine laws seem to change daily depending on who you talk to.

[Braddo]

Hi Bundy, My wifes sister has been in contact with a lawyer there he was the one to advise we need to go to a judge then to the births office and so on in brief pretty much the same as what Candyman has had to do. I was hoping someone new someone who may be in a position over there to help that may know a short cut or two and would not cost us the our life's savings to fix the problem It just annoys the sh*!t out of me that because of someone's stupid mistake it is stopping a person from getting a new life and being able to support and set up his family and I feel guilty not wanting to pay the money when I know it is all going to corruption, my wife and I have more than done our share to help our family over there and will keep doing so but I refuse to pay corruption money Thanks Bundy

[Bundy]

Braddo, I can feel your frustration mate. We should all expect things like this. It IS the Philippines we're talking about here and we all know how things operate. Mate i know your not going to want to hear this, but i told my missus your story and she said she personally knows a couple who had their daughters name incorrectly entered on the birth certificate. Just a minor mistake but instead of the christian name being "Roseanne", it was listed as Rose Anne ( two words ). This couple spent almost P100,000 and several court appearances to get the certificate ammended! The missus says if you can get it fixed for P60,000 it may be best to pay it and then when the brother-in-law comes to Oz and begins work, he can pay it back to you. I'm like you, i don't like paying ANY corruption money, especially that amount, but hey talk it over with the Brother-in-law ( your flying over soon aren't ya?) Maybe when you get there you might find other avenues to explore. Best of luck mate. :)

[Braddo]

I think I have known that is what I will end up having to do just can't get away from feathering someone else s nest, I suppose if I don't pay the P60,000 then the Bro in-law cant work so he cant support the family which means I will be supporting them anyway, so in the long run it will still cost me I may as well summit defeat and at least give him a new life Cheers Bundy :)