Your birth certificate is the sole basis of your identity, nationality, and lineage. After a person is born, a certificate of live birth is immediately accomplished for him and submitted to the Local Civil Registry office for proper registration and recording. All throughout a person’s life, his PSA birth certificate shall be required of him – school enrollment, job application, passport application, bank transactions, getting a government-issued ID, and a whole lot more.
However, it is not enough that one has a PSA birth certificate. What is more important is that the birth certificate’s entries are accurate, readable, and correctly spelled. Any discrepancy or error might cause delays and denials in your transactions later.
Correcting your last name on your PSA birth certificate can be complicated. In some cases, the case is even escalated to the courts. This could be costly and time-consuming for the owner of the birth certificate. That is why it is very important that parents check the correctness and completeness of their child’s certificate of live birth before this is sent to the LCR for registration.
If the last name on your PSA birth certificate has errors, whether blurry, misspelled, or missing, you need to have it corrected as soon as possible. Here are the PSA’s prescribed solutions for these types of errors that can happen to your last name on your birth certificate.
- Last name is BLURRY or cannot be read.
- The fastest way you can have this repaired is to request for a clear copy of your birth certificate from the LCR where your birth was registered and ask them to endorse the clear copy to the PSA. However, if the LCR’s copy is likewise blurry, you will need to file for a petition for correction of clerical error under the provisions of R.A. 9048.
- How to file for Petition for Correction for Clerical Error
- The following may file the petition:
- The owner of the PSA certificate
- PSA
- Spouse
- Children
- Parents
- Siblings
- Grandparents
- Designated guardians
- Any other person duly authorized by law
- If the owner of the PSA certificate is a minor, physically or mentally incapacitated, the petition may be filed by any of the above-mentioned as well.
- The petition may be filed at the Local Civil Registry office where the birth certificate is registered. If the owner of the PSA certificate no longer resides in that area, he may file it at the LCR of the city or municipality where he is presently residing.
- Based on the list published by the PSA on their website, the following documents must be presented as supporting documents when filing a Petition under R.A. 9048:
- Certified machine copy of the birth record containing the entry to be corrected.
- Not less than two private or public documents upon which the correction shall be based like baptismal certificate, voter’s affidavit, employment record, GSIS/SSS record, medical record, business record, driver’s license, insurance, land titles, certificate of land transfer, bank passbook, NBI/police clearance, civil registry records of ascendants.
- Notice/Certificate of Posting
- Filing fee: PHP 1,000.00
- Other documents that may be required by the LCR.
- If the petitioner or owner of the document was born abroad, he or she needs to file the petition at the Philippine Consulate Office where the birth was reported. The fee is USD 50.
- Last name is MISSPELLED
- A misspelled last name should also be corrected by filing a petition for correction of clerical error under the provisions of R.A. 9048. All the provisions stated above for such petition for correction for blurred last name on a PSA birth certificate also apply for misspelled last names.
- No Last Name
- If you do not have a last name written on your PSA birth certificate, you must file a supplemental report at the LCR where your birth certificate is registered. A supplemental report shall “supply” the missing entry on your civil registry document.
- What is a Supplemental Report?
- A Supplemental Report is a written instrument used to supply information in a birth certificate, marriage certificate, death certificate, and certificate of fetal death that were omitted when the document was registered. A proforma of an Affidavit for Supplemental Report is available online.
- The petitioner will be asked to provide the reasons why there was a failure in supplying the required entry.
- How to file a Supplemental Report
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- The following may file the petition:
- Owner of the record
- Owner’s spouse
- Children
- Parents
- Siblings
- Grandparents
- Guardian
- Other person duly authorized by law or by the owner of the document
- If the owner of the PSA certificate is a minor, physically or mentally incapacitated, the petition may be filed by any of the above-mentioned as well.
- The Supplemental Report may be filed at the Local Civil Registry office where the birth certificate is registered. If the owner of the PSA certificate no longer resides in that area, he may file it at the LCR of the city or municipality where he is presently residing.
- The LCR may require the petitioner to present supporting documents as proof of his last name.
- If the owner of the PSA birth certificate was born abroad, the Supplemental Report must be filed at the Philippine Consulate where the birth was reported. If he is already residing in the Philippines, the Supplemental Report shall be endorsed to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Office of Consular Affairs.
Your and your family’s PSA certificates (birth, marriage, death, and CENOMAR) are important documents. Often, these are required of us at short notice by government offices and private establishments that we transact with. Whether it’s enrolling your children to school, getting a passport, opening a new checking account, applying for a loan, or filing an insurance or inheritance claim. Be sure all the entries are correct, and all the dates are accurate. If you see anything missing or inaccurate, work on having it corrected right away.
How to get a PSA birth certificate online
You can make a PSA online application for your PSA certificate needs. Just logon to PSAHelpline.ph, an online channel authorized by the PSA to handle online ordering and delivery of PSA certificates. You can request for your family’s most important PSA certificates ( (PSA birth certificate , PSA marriage certificate, PSA death certificate, and PSA CENOMAR) and receive the documents right at the comfort and safety of your home. You can pay using your credit cards, your GCash and PayMaya accounts, or over the counter at partner banks and payment centers.
Get copies of your family’s PSA certificates now to be sure that everyone’s civil registry documents are accurate and complete.
Reference: www.psa.gov.ph
