As part of its thrust to uphold the child’s right to have a name and nationality, the Department of Social Welfare and Development in the Davao Region extends free birth registration to provide legal identity to all children of DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program beneficiaries.
The program also caters to other beneficiaries of the government’s poverty reduction program such as adult parents and indigenous people who are not yet registered with the local civil registry.
The DSWD’s nationwide free birth registration project for 4Ps beneficiaries will be offered only during the month of May.
The program accommodates newborns and late registrants from the 4Ps areas covering the 31 municipalities and three cities of the region.
DSWD regional director Ester Versoza said the program aims to address concern on the number of births and children who are unregistered, citing particularly remote areas where most of the 4Ps beneficiaries reside.
Versoza said the DSWD will undertake the project in partnership with the National Statistics Office and Department of Interior and Local Government.
She said the DILG has enjoined the Pantawid local government units to accept and waive registration fees for timely and delayed birth registration of 4Ps grantees.
Versoza explained that the free registration program came about following observations that many potential 4Ps beneficiaries had difficulty presenting birth the certificate requirement during registration and validation process.
“We have discovered that many grantees, especially the IPs, don’t have birth certificates,” she said.
The DSWD officials also attributed to fear of discrimination among adults, saying, “They feel embarrassed to register at their age,” adding that unregistered residents were also found in areas where no system was in place.
In 2006, the UNICEF stated that 35 percent of births in East Asia and the Pacific are unregistered. The NSO, meanwhile, estimates that about 10–15% of Filipino children born every year are not properly documented.
As provided for in Article 7 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, birth registration is a primary right of a child, which is also espoused in the country’s Millennium Development Goals committing to attain various anti-poverty programs, including those for 4Ps.
“Upholding the fundamental right of a child to bear a name is in line with the MDGs,” Versoza stated, underscoring the need to advocate the importance of birth registration among the 4Ps grantees, especially the IPs.
Birth certificates are part of the legal documents required of 4Ps beneficiaries as basis for verification of identity and age.
Meanwhile, 4Ps deputy program manager Rebecca Santamaria of DSWD-11 raised the concern that some of the Pantawid recipients cannot be declared beneficiaries of the Philippine Health Insurance program for the indigents “because they have no legal documents.”
Seeing this problem, Santamaria stressed the importance of birth registration and to increase the number of registrants, especially of IPs and other vulnerable sectors.
She said, however, that implementers of this program are challenged on “how to reach remote areas with the little time given” left until the end of this month. [PAI 11]
She urged beneficiaries to go directly to their respective Pantawid city or municipal links to have their names listed for verification process.
At present, 4Ps has 136,825 beneficiaries in 31 municipalities and three cities covering 593 barangays in the Davao region. [PIA 11]
