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CAVEAT LECTOR
"MY NAME IS..."

By Mickko Mendoza
HR Officer
Corporate HR
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“Maria” or “Ma.”? “Jose Marie” or “Jose Ma.”?

 

Did you know that you can correct your name without needing a judicial order?

 

Republic Act No. 9048 (RA 9048) authorizes the city or municipal civil registrar or the consul general to correct a clerical or typographical error in an entry and/or change the first name or nickname in the civil register without need of a judicial order.

 

This law allows the following corrections in a birth certificate:

 

  1. Correction of clerical or typographical errors in any entry in civil registry documents

  2. Change of a person’s first name in his/her civil registry document under certain grounds specified under the law through administrative process

 

With regards to correction of clerical or typographical errors, the clerical or typographical errors must be an “obvious mistake committed in clerical work, either in writing, copying, transcribing, or typing an entry in the civil register that is harmless and innocuous, such as a misspelled name or misspelled place of birth and the like, and can be corrected or changed only by reference to other existing record or records”.

 

Below are the conditions under RA 9048 that the petitioner needs to comply with in correction or change of name:

 

  1. The petitioner finds the first name or nickname to be ridiculous, tainted with dishonor or extremely difficult to write or pronounce;

  2. The new first name or nickname has been habitually and continuously used by the petitioner and he has been publicly known by that first name or nickname in the community; or,

  3. The change will avoid confusion.

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The petition may be filed by a person of legal age who must have a direct and personal interest in the correction of the error or in the change of first name in the civil register.

 

The following persons are considered to have a direct and personal interest in the correction of clerical error or change of first name:

 

  1. Owner of the record that contains the error to be corrected or first name to be changed

  2. Owner's spouse, children, parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, guardian, or any other person duly authorized by law or by the owner of the document sought to be corrected

 

As to filing of petition, “the general rule is that petition shall be filed with the Local Civil Registry Office (LCRO) where the record containing the clerical error to be corrected or first name to be changed is kept. Included in this general rule is the case of the Office of the Clerk of Shari'a Court where records of divorces, revocations of divorces, conversions to Islam are kept and where some Muslim marriages are registered”. If living abroad, a petition may be filed at the nearest Philippine Consulate.

 

Thankfully, with RA 9048, correction or change of name can be done easily and without unnecessarily going to Court.



Source: https://psa.gov.ph (Philippine Statistics Office official website)

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