Lawmaker calls for improved registration among indigenous and poor communities

A SENATOR on Thursday called on the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the Office of the Civil Registrar to ramp up registration among indigenous and poor communities to ensure their inclusion in social services, especially children.������

“Children without a birth certificate are one of the most vulnerable classes of people as they are bereft of the document that is necessary in accessing health, nutrition, education and social protection,” Senator Mary Grace S. Poe-Llamanzares said during the PSA’s second national convention in Pasay City.��

“In order to be eligible for certain public services and social protection, we need to establish our legal identity, civil status and family relations,” she added. “While the country is still in the process of fully implementing a national identity card scheme, civil registry documents are our primary means to prove who we are.”����

The senator also pushed for the full digitalization of civil registration to ease access to documents. — Alyssa Nicole O. Tan