JAPSON
The four-member Cebu City Council approved an ordinance that requires no payment for delayed registration of birth, marriage and death certificates as well as filing of legitimation, and free legal services for legal instruments.
The ordinance also covers one day free issuance of certifications for birth, marriage and death in the Office of the City Civil Registrar for February each year.
The ordinance will be applicable to all Cebu City residents and non-residents whose birth, marriage and death occurred in Cebu City.
It is the first ordinance approved by a four-member Cebu City Council.
“A lot of people don’t have the money to pay attendants at birth, solemnizing officers in marriages and hospitals and clinic where birth or death occur,” Acting Cebu City Vice Mayor Leah Japson, who authored the ordinance, said.
Badjao beneficiaries of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) pore over the birth certificates of their children during the Indigenous Day celebration at Mambaling Sports Complex in this Nov. 11, 2011 file photo.
She said the poor will benefit from securing their birth, marriage and death certificates free of charge for any legal purposes it may serve.
Under the ordinance, the Cebu City Civil Registrar will accept qualified applications for delayed registration of birth, marriage and death and filing of legitimation. This will be free of charge for February.
Japson said P150,000 will be allocated under the ordinance to support the celebration of the “Civil Registration Month” for each year and this will be charged to the City Civil Registrar’s account.
The ordinance will take effect 15 days after publication.