By Yoshiko Shanez Balagon, Davao Today Intern
Davao City – Former indigenous peoples (IP) representative Berino Mambo-o Sr appealed to the Local Civil Registrar to simplify the registration of IPs as agencies marked the Civil Registration Month.
“I hope they won’t be too strict if Lumads lack the papers and requirements. I hope they will accommodate them with what they can provide so that they will be registered,” Mambo-o told Davao Today in an interview Tuesday.
Mambo-o said that as some IPs cannot provide their exact birth date, they would just “estimate the age and the date of child’s birthday for him/her to have a birth certificate.”
Local Civil Registrar (LCR) chief Atty. Leo Anthony Braceros, said IPs “are not subject to the same registration procedure compared to ordinary residents. They have a separate registration procedure based on the circular issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority.”
“We use the same form but we make an annotation in the birth certificate that they are registered under the Indigenous People’s Rights Act,” Braceros said.
Braceros said this is because LCR respects the different traditions and customs of the IPs’ culture. IPs are not accustomed to documentation and are not particular to their date of birth and the place where they are born.
“We address the registration problems with the IPs through the mobile registration. We go to their location. We have a mobile registration team that goes around their areas,” said Braceros. (davaotoday.com)
