By Liza Agoot
In 2023, the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) PhilSys Birth Registration Assistance Project successfully registered 5,490 residents across the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and Baguio City.
According to Gerald Tolito, PSA-CAR registration officer IV, Apayao recorded the highest number of registrants with 1,442 individuals. Following closely behind, Kalinga had 1,339 registrants, trailed by Ifugao with 1,055, Mountain Province with 676, Abra with 529, and Benguet with 449 registrants.
PSA-CAR regional director Villafe Alibuyog in an interview said the free “birth registration program has been extended this year because they saw that there were many unregistered Filipinos and the program is benefitting thousands of people.”
Alibuyog said the unregistered individuals were discovered as government personnel conducted different censuses in households, reaching as far as single households in the mountains to catch the actual survey targets.
“It is important for animals to have papers but people need it more. That is why our government is extending assistance to any person who has not been registered so that they will have their papers giving them proof of their identity,” she added.
The program also caters to people from other regions.
Birth certificate
For 57 years, Alex Gabilno of Kapangan, Benguet did not know what a birth certificate looked like as he did not see the need or the relevance of the document until government workers explained the importance of being registered.
“I did not have it, I was not registered. It is my first time to hold this document which they say is important that identifies who I am,” Gabilno said in Ilocano on the sidelines of the awarding of the birth certificate during the Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair on Sunday at the Benguet State University in capital town La Trinidad. (PNA)
