The San Pedro City Civil Registrar’s Office has once again proved that it can become “Una sa Laguna” when it comes to birth registration.
The local Civil Registrar’s Office retained its Top 3 status among civil registrars in Laguna province with the highest number of registered birth records from 2022 to the first semester of 2024.
City Civil Registrar Riah Fojas received this distinction during the 2024 Calabarzon Regional Convention on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) held last September 26 in Tagaytay City, Cavite.
Aside from this, the local office also received the distinction of placing 5thin the 2022 Calabarzon Outstanding Local Civil Registry Office – Extra Large Category during the event.
Fojas said the Top 3 status of the San Pedro City Civil Registrar’s Office is due to its intensified efforts to implement the PSA’s Birth Registration Assistance Project (BRAP).
Everyone counts – and are counted
In an message to OpinYon Laguna, Fojas underscored the vital role of her office in ensuring that vital documents such as birth, marriage and death certificates are properly recorded in the national database of the PSA.
This includes the implementation of the BRAP program, which aims to increase the level of birth registration, especially in marginalized communities.
As part of the BRAP, the San Pedro City Civil Registrar in 2022 started conducting mobile registration drives in the city’s 27 barangays, as well as joining other activities such as school enrolments and registration for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
“Sa buong Laguna, ang LCR ng San Pedro ang tanging LCR na sumasama sa 4Ps validation,” she said.
The San Pedro City Civil Registrar also signed a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Education (DepEd) to encourage parents who are enrolling their children to have themselves registered with the PSA.
Aside from this, the office has also forged partnerships with the private sector, particularly civic and religious groups, and even with tricycle operators’ and drivers’ associations (TODAs).
"We have strengthened our mobile registration in every barangay, conducted mobile registration in areas where there is a high number of unregistered children. In fact, there was one sitio where the Ursuline Sisters of Mary headed by Sister Vera personally requested the Mayor to have the children registered," Fojas reported.
“We also conducted an information campaign sa TODA, for them to know that the city of san pedro and the LCR office po is willing to help them to register unregistered individuals..bec it is the right of every individual to have a name and nationality.
It wouldn't be possible without the full support of Mayor Art Mercado to our efforts,” she added.
Another pioneering measure the city government has enacted was a local ordinance, authored by Councilor Marky Oliveros, that prohibits hospitals and similar facilities from withholding birth and death certificates due to non-payment of bills.
"We also conduct out-of-town registration of an individual who was born in other places but is now a resident of San Pedro. This is also in partnership with BRAP of PSA," Fojas noted.
(Report by James Veloso and Catherine Go)
San Pedro Civil Registrar wins recognition anew
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