By Gabriela Baron
The Senate bill seeking permanent validity of the birth, death, and marriage certificates lapsed into law on July 28.
“With this piece of legislation, we have clearly and categorically provided the permanent validity of the civil registry documents regardless of the date of issuance,” Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., sponsor of the law in the Senate, said in a statement Tuesday, Aug. 2.
Citing the law, Revilla said the certificates, issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority, National Statistics Office, and the local civil registries, “will be recognized and accepted in all government or private transactions.”
“Through this, our people do not have to unnecessarily spend time and money in securing new copies of their documents,” Revilla added.
Prior to the measure, some government agencies and private institutions require these documents to be obtained in the past six months as the security paper they are printed on changes every six months. –ag
