THE City Council’s committee on health and sanitation conducted a public hearing on Sept. 28 regarding a proposed ordinance revising and updating the Local Civil Registry (LCR) fees and charges. While the increases reach as much as 100%, committee chairman Councilor Rafael C. Omega Jr. assures these are minimal.
Omega said the increases are necessary considering the old fees were imposed 35 years ago when a sack of cement was worth P150 only and the exchange rate was $1-P2. Considering the cost of labor and materials has increased a thousand-fold since then, the current LCR fees are no longer realistic.
Omega also cited the need to cope up with the rising cost of delivering social services to Ormoc’s increasing population which now stands at 119,000 compared to only 77,000 in 1976. “Government is run by taxes,” he told the audience. Civil Registrar Dr. Archilles A. Silva also explained that other cities and towns have raised their LCR fees and charges long ago.
The ordinance mentions that the revenue generated will be used to improve the LCR office’s facilities and services. Silva specifically cited a move by the Philippine Association of Civil Registrars to use a unified registry form that would make it easier for the public to retrieve documents using the Philippine Civil Registry Information System (Philcris).
One convenience Philcris will bring is that Ormocanons won’t have to go to Tacloban. However, Philcris forms cost P5,000 per ream compared to P1,000 of the regular forms. Another national imposition is the use of security paper (Secpa) from the National Statistics Office (NSO) in obtaining birth, marriage and birth certificates. The Secpa can be bought from the Central Bank only at P140 per sheet but which will be sold for P200 to the public.
There are 59 items with charges to be increased and 13 new impositions in the proposed ordinance. Omega stressed that registration of birth, marriage and death are still free of charge even with the utilization of forms. It is only the certificates that are charged P20 that will be raised to P50. A birth certificate is required for passport application while a death certificate is required to claim SSS, GSIS and insurance benefits of the deceased.
A new fee of P200 each will be imposed for an Amended Certificate of Live Birth and Transcript of Civil Registry Document considering these will entail endorsement letters to the NSO, annotations, etc. An Amended Certificate of Live Birth is resorted to by parents who haven’t decided on the name to their child when their birth was registered.
On marriages, the application and processing fee as well as solemnization fee will be raised 100% from P150 each. The P2 marriage form fee is remitted to the national coffers. There are also new impositions for the marriage of foreigners and Filipino citizens marrying foreigners from P500 to P1,000. Foreigners will also have to pay another P500 for registration of legal capacity to contract marriage.
The ordinance wants to charge P500 for the affidavit of oath of allegiance for Philippine citizenship which is sought by Filipinos applying for dual citizenship. But Vice Mayor Nepomuceno P. Aparis proposed that it be raised to P1,000 considering dual citizenship is a privilege.
Registration of legitimization, acknowledgement and authority to use surname of the father is resorted to by couples who had a child or children out of wedlock and then decide to get married and make their child or children carry the father’s surname. Silva said this used to be done through a court procedure wherein the petitioners had to spend P50,000-200,000.
The procedure has been made administrative and petitioners only have to pay P100 which is proposed to be doubled. Registration of adoption, appointment of guardian and termination thereof which requires a court order is charged P100 but will be raised to P300.
Other transactions that used to require litigation are change of first name in the certificate of live birth, and correction of clerical errors in the certificate of live birth, marriage and death. Fortunately, RA 9048 allowed LCRs to fix these problems. A proposed new imposition of P200 will be charged for the registration of change of clerical error and change of first name.
Silva said if couples are willing to spend at least P100,000 in court to get rid of their spouses from their lives, they shouldn’t mind if the LCR doubles the P500 fee for registration of annulment of marriage, and registration of foreign decree of divorce and legal separation.
There was no opposition raised on the proposed increases from among the 216 participants in attendance. Barangay Captain Danilo Pepito of Luna was even pleased on the prospect that Ormocanons don’t have to go to NSO-Tacloban for their requirements. However, barangay secretaries complained that they will have to serve as extension of LCR clerks.
Sec. 8 of the proposed ordinance mandates barangay officials especially secretaries to assist the LCR in the registration of births, deaths, marriages, etc. as required by law occurring within their respective territorial jurisdiction. Edmundo Abenio, barangay secretary of Bantigue lamented that this is an additional burden to them and asked if barangays can charge their own fees for this purpose.
But legislative legal consultant Atty. Mariano Y. Corro cautioned them from charging fees not mandated by law. Besides, this task isn’t new to barangay secretaries as it is provided by sec. 394, par. 5 of the Local Government Code as part of the Barangay Registry Information System. In fact, there exists a Barangay Civil Registration Council for this purpose, he added.
For his part, Vrigildo T. Felicidad of Sto. Niño who is president of the Association of Barangay Secretaries of Ormoc asked if barangays can share from the LCR revenues. Aparis said the proposal will be subject to another legislation just like the barangays’ share on the collection of water bills. by Felix N. Codilla III
(Issue of Sept. 26-Oct. 2, 2011)
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