This Act adds the following Authority to Correct Clerical or Typographical Error and Change of First Name or Nickname. – No entry in a civil register shall be changed or corrected without a judicial order, except for clerical or typographical errors and change of first name or nickname, the day and month in the date of birth or sex of a person where it is patently clear that there was a clerical or typographical error or mistake in the entry, which can be corrected or changed by the concerned city or municipal civil registrar or consul general in accordance with the provisions of this Act and its implementing rules and regulations.”
By definition, ‘Clerical or typographical error’ refers to a mistake committed in the performance of clerical work in writing, copying, transcribing or typing an entry in the civil register that is harmless and innocuous, such as misspelled name or misspelled place of birth, mistake in the entry of day and month in the date of birth or the sex of the person or the like, which is visible to the eyes or obvious to the understanding, and can be corrected or changed only by reference to other existing record or records: Provided, however, That no correction must involve the change of nationality, age, or status of the petitioner.”
It has been a clerical practice for those who are filling up the birth certificate to place those prefix "Baby Boy" and "Baby Girl" as a prefix to the First Name especially those born 1992 and earlier. This practice or habit of placing "Baby Boy" or "Baby Girl" in itself is a clerical error made by the concerned city or municipal civil registrar since there exists a field for the gender or sex of a person on the Birth Certificate. This MUST NOT require a person to file a court petition to change name when the name succeeding these prefixes are the ones legally used. This is simply and clearly a clerical error which can easily be corrected by the Local Civil Registrar, MCR or Consul General by letting the person covered by such circumstance to accomplish a Supplemental Report and NOT go through court proceeding requiring citizens to file a Petition to Change First Name which is both absurd and costly. The Government must acknowledge that such practice existed and may still be existing up to this point in time.
To read the NSO press release, click the link below:
http://www.census.gov.ph/data/pressrelease/2012/pr1271tx.html
To view R.A. 10172, click here.
I have also started a Petition to amend yet again the R.A. 10172.
