Question & AnswerQ&A (Act No. 3753)
The Civil Register is established for recording the civil status of persons, including births, deaths, marriages, annulments, divorces, legitimations, adoptions, acknowledgments of natural children, naturalizations, and changes of name.
The Director of the National Library is designated as the Civil Registrar-General and is responsible for enforcing the provisions of the Act.
Local civil registrars shall file registrable certificates and documents, compile monthly reports, issue certified transcripts or copies, bind certificates annually, send copies of entries to the Civil Registrar-General, index entries for easy search, and administer oaths free of charge for civil register purposes.
The treasurers of regular municipalities, municipal districts, or cities serve as local civil registrars outside the City of Manila.
Local civil registrars must keep birth and death registers, marriage registers (including divorces and dissolved marriages), and registers for legitimation, acknowledgment, adoption, change of name, and naturalization.
A declaration by the attending physician or midwife or, in their absence, by either parent of the newborn child must be submitted within 30 days, stating the date and hour of birth, sex, nationality, parents' names, citizenship, religion, civil status, place of birth, and other required data.
Any person knowingly making false statements in the civil register forms may be punished by imprisonment of one to six months, a fine of 200 to 500 pesos, or both, at the court's discretion.
The fees are 10 pesos each for the registration of annulment of marriage and divorce.
All civil officers and authorized priests or ministers who solemnize marriages must send a copy of each marriage contract to the local civil registrar within the prescribed time.
Bodies may be buried during epidemics if proper death certificates have been secured; such certificates must be registered within five days after burial.
For the first offense, an administrative fine equal to the registrar's salary for 15 days to 3 months may be imposed; for second or repeated offenses, removal from service is mandatory.
The legitimation may be recorded in the legitimation register with details of the parents, confirmation that they could have contracted marriage at conception, date and place of the marriage, the officiating minister, the civil register of the marriage, and names of legitimated children with reference to their birth certificates.
Yes, the books and documents making up the civil register are public documents and prima facie evidence of the truth of the facts contained. They are open to the public during office hours.