Watching Official Gazette like a HAWK

[Samuel and Marvic 4]

I'll give this visa process credit: I've learned more than I ever wanted to know about Philippine law in the last three weeks staring at the amendment to RA 9048 that's inevitably going to pass as law.

For those of you unaware of my past issues, my fiance has her gender incorrectly listed as male rather than female on her NSO-certified birth certificate. Normally under these circumstances, she would have to go through a judicial order and we'd pay through the nose (20Kp+) to get it corrected, with a processing time ranging from 6 months to a year (allegedly). Spending weeks trying to figure out a solution to expedite the process, I stumbled across this little treasure:

http://www.senate.gov.ph/lis/bill_res.aspx?congress=15&q=SBN-3113

AN ACT FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE CITY OR MUNICIPAL CIVIL REGISTRAR OR THE CONSUL-GENERAL TO CORRECT CLERICAL OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS IN THE DAY AND MONTH IN THE DATE OF BIRTH OR SEX OF A PERSON APPEARING IN THE CIVIL REGISTER WITHOUT NEED OF A JUDICIAL ORDER, AMENDING FOR THIS PURPOSE REPUBLIC ACT NUMBERED NINETY FORTY-EIGHT

Long story short: it eliminates the judicial order and makes the process as long as a typo on the first name (less than a month!). As of the last status, it was sitting as follows:

7/19/2012 Enrolled copies of the consolidated version of SBN-3113 and HBN-4530, sent to the Office of the President of the Philippines, for the signature and approval of His Excellency President Benigno S. Aquino III;

For those that are unaware, the Philippine law states that any bill that has been sent to the President and has not been signed nor vetoed within 30 days automatically becomes law as if it were signed. To compound on this fact that the timeframe has lapsed, two additional bills that were sitting on his desk that were sent at the same time have been designated with Republic Act numbers (The Data Privacy Act and the People's Survival Fund). Next in that list in numerical order? You guessed it: The Clerical or Typographical Error amendment here.

This isn't just huge for my fiance and I (which I swear is a gift from God with its timing), but it will greatly help those who are also experiencing issues with their birthdates or genders on their birth certificates being wrong. I've been hounding the NSO on an almost daily basis asking "is it here yet? is it here yet?" so I can submit the forms as needed right away for it.

Anyways, I'm just rambling because this will inevitably be updated when the law is put into affect so that those who need it can know exactly what to reference when they go into the Civil Registry to get their information corrected. Fingers crossed it is tomorrow, but you never know!

[Samuel and Marvic 4]

And we're in!!

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=841692&publicationSubCategoryId=63

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino signed the new law extending the power of local civil registrars to correct errors in birth certificates without any court order.

Correcting errors in date of birth and gender in birth certificates no longer needs court approval.

Republic Act 10172, which was signed by the President last Aug. 19, amended several provisions of Republic Act 9048.

It extended the coverage of exemptions to requirement of judicial approval for correction on entries in the birth certificate.

Under the new law, the city or municipal registrar may correct clerical or typographical errors in the day and month of date of birth or gender without a court order.

The previous law did not include the entries on date of birth and gender among the exemptions on court approval requirement and only specified entries on first name and nickname in the civil register.

Apart from this, the new law also specified where the fees for corrections in the birth certificate should go.

“The fees collected by the city or municipal civil registrar or consul general pursuant to this Act shall accrue to the funds of the Local Civil Registry Office concerned or the Office of the Consul General for modernization of the office and hiring of new personnel and procurement of supplies, subject to government accounting and auditing rules,” read Section 8 of RA 10172.

The new law is a consolidation of Senate Bill 3113 and House Bill 4530 that Congress passed last May 30 and June 5, respectively.

This is going to be huge for a lot of people here, spread the word to those who have birth date or gender issues on their BCs!

[Starflyer 59 16]

Awesome! I'm glad to see that this passed. I hope everything goes quickly and smoothly for you.