By Pamela Mariz Geminiano/PNA
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — The problem on the absence of birth certificates of senior citizens belonging to the indigenous people (IP) communities is now being addressed, making them eligible to avail of the benefits of their old age, a civil registrar in Benguet said on Friday.
“The NCIP (National Commission on Indigenous Peoples) is doing the genealogy of the senior citizen. They trace the roots of the individual to validate the information they have which are used in registering their birth and obtaining an official copy of a birth certificate,” said Joan Solano-Bacoling, La Trinidad Municipal Civil Registrar (MCR) and president of the Association of Baguio-Benguet Civil Registrars (ABBCR).
A number of elderly IP members in the province are not registered with the civil registry offices or the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) which prevents them from availing of benefits given to senior citizens.
There are also those who are receiving pension as war veterans, but do not have birth certificates.
Through the genealogy or “family tree” of a person whose family record is kept with the NCIP, Bacoling said they are able to trace the sequence of birth of IPs and identify or estimate the age of a person.
Using the family tree, they are able to help the person complete the documentary requirement of late registration, Bacoling said.
“It’s a tedious process wherein NCIP will have to trace the family members of each senior citizens. This will validate the information provided during the application and not complicate what we have,” she said.
The NCIP also looks at the authenticity of information upon registration to avoid conflicting data, Bacoling added.
“For example, the war veterans who have been receiving social pensions but do not have records with us, normally we are getting their information from the military service office,” she said.
She said if these veterans have been married, the spouses will be registered under the MCR along with their kin who had been born prior to February 1931.
“What we are doing is we keep track of their records and we issue them certifications, affidavit or any possible assistance to fast-track their registration,” she said.
Bacoling said local civil registrars managed to help several senior citizens in processing their birth certificate registration with the help of the NCIP.
In celebration of the national 2019 civil registration month, several activities were set by the municipal civil registry offices in Benguet to aid residents even in the mountains to be registered with the PSA.
Kapangan municipal civil registrar Isabel Pi-ay said they will prioritize senior citizens who do not have birth certificates but who are already receiving their social pensions
“We are going around our municipality to look into [the problem] and validate their information. Some already have their identification cards but do not have birth certificates yet,” she said.
