Citing a 2015 report
presented in a meeting with stakeholders on Thursday, Philippine Statistics
Authority (PSA) Regional Director Wilma Perante said only 75 percent of people
in this poverty-stricken region have certificate of live births.
“The level of birth
registration is very low in Eastern Visayas despite years of strengthened civil
registration education campaign. We are the second lowest region in the
country,” Perante told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
The official said the
low registration is not really expected considering that in 2015, nine out of
10 birth deliveries in the region were attended by physicians, nurses, and
midwives inside hospitals, rural health units and birthing clinics.
“Birth attended by
health professionals increased from 87.06 percent in 2014 to 91.11 percent
in 2015, while birth attended by unlicensed traditional midwives dropped from
12.53 percent to 8.21 percent in the same period,” Perante added.
When the birth
occurred in a hospital or clinic, the management will be responsible in
registration of the birth within 30 days.
She admitted that not
all births attended by health professional are registered with PSA especially
for children with unmarried parents.
“The process of
registering illegitimate children is complicated and more costly. This is one
of the reasons of low registration we found in our study,” she said.
During the Civil
Registration Month celebration in February, the PSA and local government units
initiated several activities anchored on the theme “#napapanahongCRVS”. CRVS
stands for civil registration and vital statistics.
The theme is in
consonance with the global advocacy of getting everyone registered and
promoting awareness on the importance of civil registration in the lives of
every Filipino.
Civil registration is
“napapanahon” (timely) according to the PSA official since the country is
pushing for national ID system for every Filipino.
The Sustainable
Development Goals set by the United Nations also emphasizes the need for
recording of vital events such as births and deaths for policy and planning
purposes.
Of the 17 SDGs, the
UN found a direct link between eight goals and CRVS. These goals are no
poverty; no hunger; good health and well-being; quality education; gender
equality; reduced inequalities; peace, justice and strong institutions; and
partnership for the goals.
Poor families,
according to Perante need civil registry documents to access some anti-poverty
programs, open bank accounts, own properties, avail health services, enroll
school, avail post-disaster assistance, among others.
Such is the case of
siblings Edison, 5 and Eddielyn, 3 from Palamrag village, who don’t have
certificate of live births. For their aunt Myrna Dadul, the document is the
only way for the poor children to gain their basic rights.
The two kids were
abandoned by their own mother, neglected by their father, and deprived of basic
health services from the government like immunizations due to the absence of
civil registration record.
Their world-weary
grandfather, Alfeo Dadul, 78, assumed the parenting task. Last week, Myrna
went to the town hall to avail of the free registration program in line with
the Civil Registration month celebration.
PSA and local
government units have lined up activities to highlight the month-long
celebration such as symposia, data dissemination seminars, trainings, exhibits,
slogan, and poster making contests, information and education campaign, and
hanging of streamers. (SQM/PNA)
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