Gatchalian pushes checks, balances vs. abuse in late civil registry filings

Senator Win Gatchalian insisted that the process of facilitating late civil registration should be a balancing act to prevent abuses while providing a mechanism for delayed registration for millions of Filipinos.
Sen. Win Gatchalian
“It has to be a balancing act. We cannot tighten it too much because we will disenfranchise our constituents, but we also cannot loosen it too much because criminal syndicates will exploit a relaxed policy,” Gatchalian said at a recent hearing of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights on his proposed Philippine Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Act.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), about 3.6 million Filipinos lacked birth certificates based on the 2020 census, while roughly 40% of birth registrations in 2023 were filed late.
He emphasized that the government needs to tighten provisions on late registration to deter unscrupulous individuals from abusing the process to advance their own interests, citing the case of former Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, who fraudulently acquired Filipino citizenship through the late registration process.
Still, the process should not deter disadvantaged Filipinos from availing themselves of the mechanism, the senator said.