As delivered.
Philippine COUNTRY STATEMENT (Agenda item 4)
Ministerial Conference on
Civil Registration and Vital Statistics is Asia and the Pacific
24-28 November 2014, Bangkok, Thailand
CIVIL REGISTRATION AND VITAL STATISTICS (CRVS) SYSTEM
IN THE PHILIPPINES
Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates,
The Philippines congratulates the organizers of this Conference for putting emphasis on
CRVS.
Civil registration in the Philippines was instituted and made compulsory by the
enactment of the Civil Registry Law in 1930. Through the years, legislations were
passed to strengthen civil registration in the Philippines to: 1) uphold the customs and
traditions of Muslim Filipinos and Indigenous Peoples (IPs); 2) neutralize the stigma of
having a different surname in the birth certificate, if a child is born out of wedlock, and
legitimated children born to parents below marrying age; and 3) allow registration of
children in need of special protection including those who are victims of abuse,
exploitation, cruelty, discrimination and violence including in situations of armed conflict
and domestic violence, those deserted or abandoned infant or child found with unknown
facts of birth and parentage, and other analogous conditions in the country. These
measures ensure that each and every Filipino will be counted.
The Philippines puts emphasis on the importance of documents to establish identity and
civil status; and toward this end has endeavored, in 2000, the computerization of the
civil registry system to streamline and enhance the retrieval and storage of civil registry
documents, and allow the use of the internet and a phone-based service to apply for
civil registry documents. The Philippines also introduced systems to improve registration
in the subnational level.
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As delivered.
Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates,
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) continues to enhance its capability and
coordination with other stakeholders, such as: 1) the Local Civil Registrars; 2) other
government agencies; 3) foreign embassies in the Philippines for the validation and
verification of civil registry documents; and, 4) the academe and research institutions for
the utilization of data.
The PSA-generated vital statistics are used, among others, as basis for health
programs and evidence-based policies and for researches such as estimating the
survivorship of patients, as inputs to population projections and studies on the causes of
death and maternal mortality.
The Philippines believes that high level and improved civil registration brought to the
people can be achieved, not only by legislation and concerted efforts of the team
players, but also by the continuous dissemination, and implementation of sustainable
programs and projects by the government and non-government stakeholders.
Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates,
The Philippines believes that evidences of our concerted effort and commitment of our
stakeholders in CRVS policy and plans development as well as in implementing
strategic initiatives ensures achievability of our contribution to the shared vision by
2024.
We look forward to sharing our achievements in our all-inclusive civil registration
strategies, technological advancements in authentication and information management,
and vital statistics’ data sharing modalities during this CRVS Ministerial Conference.
Thank you for this opportunity and good afternoon. #
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