Newly-born babies cannot be registered
SAN CARLOS CITY– An oversight in simple administrative requirement by the national government has resulted in a dilemma for hundreds of newborn babies and their parents.
Babies born since January 1 at the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital (PPH) have remained unregistered as the government-owned hospital. Reason? It has run out of birth certificate registration forms.
Other government and private hospitals have also reportedly been having problems with their supply of birth certificate registration forms.
Dr. Policarpio Manuel, officer-in-charge hospital director at the PPH, has appealed to complaining mothers and relatives to be patient as they try to find solutions to the problem.
“They think we are reneging on our duty but we are helpless as there are no forms available,”’ Manuel told The PUNCH.
Manuel said the hospital has already sent a representative to the National Statistics Office (NSO) in Manila but was given only 10 pads, good for 100 new registrants. The hospital handles an average of 35 births a day.
He added that they have also tried procuring the forms from nearby Local Civil Registry Offices, including Baguio City, but these too have no forms left.
A new registration form has been drafted by the NSO but the National Printing Office has yet to issue copies of the revised document.
“We were told there are some changes in the data written in the forms but the problem is we cannot register the newborn because we have run out of old forms, too.” Manuel said.
“They (NSO) should have anticipated this,” he added. Manuel said NSO promised the new forms will be delivered by the last week of January and assured those with pending birth registration will not be penalized for late registration.#
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