I was born on Oct. 15, 1975 and I was baptized on May 8, 1976. I was only registered on April 16, 1997 by my father. Unfortunately, during the registration, the municipal civil registrar of Caibiran, Biliran wrote down May 8, 1976 as my date of birth in my Certificate of Live Birth. This is a big problem because in all of my personal documents such as my baptismal certificate, school records, government I.D.’s, and other personal records reflect all my true date of birth which is October 15, 1975.
I was advised that to correct this error I have to go to court. On November 15, 2010, I filed a petition for correction of entry at the Regional Trial Court Naval, Biliran. On January 26, 2011, I received an initial court order from Hon. Bienvenido M. Montalla, Judge Designate stating that my petition was being sufficient in form and substance. Since then, hearings were scheduled but as most notices of hearings go, many were not held as scheduled for one reason or another. I had hired and paid for the services of a lawyer, Atty. Redentor Villordon, to attend to this, since I was busy with my studies. However, I felt that I was being given the run-around and that my case was going nowhere when even my own lawyer couldn’t give me satisfactory reasons for the frequent postponements of hearings that caused so much delay to my case. As to date, I received seven (7) notice of hearing from the time I filed my petition in 2010. Is it not that my case should have been resolved by now? I could not understand this!
I sought assistance from the Office of the Ombudsman regarding my case and on February 27, 2012 and on April 11, 2012, the Ombudsman sent a letter to RTC-Naval requesting them to expedite resolution of my petition. What should have been a simple civil case that involved correcting an error has ballooned to a huge problem that nobody seems to want to touch. It was only on April 24, 2012 that all exhibits proving of my true date of birth were admitted in court.
What raises me a critical question is the way RTC-Naval handles in correcting errors? Despite that I complied to the requirements needed in filing a petition for the said correction, what else would I prove in order that my case be resolved? On June 15, 2012, I received another notice of hearing for September 11, 2012, three months more to wait when my classes should already start in September 2012 in Canada. I tried to write the Office of the Solicitor General on this matter requesting for assistance. As of this writing, I am still waiting for their positive reply. Through no fault of my own, I am being deprived of my rights to hold a valid Birth Certificate which is a basic human right as a Filipino citizen and without which I cannot hope to apply for a valid passport. I need these very badly because I am being requested by the Archdiocese of St. John’s in Canada to undergo a parish pastoral exposure and mission which was supposedly have started last April 2012. After which I hope to finish my theological studies for priesthood at the St. Augustine Seminary of Toronto in Canada this year.
I am calling the attention of the concerned government agencies responsible to my predicament to expedite resolution to my petition under Civil Case No. CB-11-232, concerning the correction of entry in my Birth Certificate.
With the problem that I am encountering now, may I appeal to the concerned government agencies to review the law pertaining to correcting an error because it has been causing disturbances and inconveniences to my studies.
