PSA wants 50K suspected fraudulent birth registrations vetted by year-end

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is eyeing to complete the vetting of some 50,000 suspected fraudulent birth registrations within the year.

PSA Assistant National Statistician Marizza Grande committed this to the Senate committee on women, children, family relations, and gender equality during its last hearing Tuesday on illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO).

"From 2010 to 2024, there are 14.89 million that have been registered under this delayed registration schemes and based on some parameters that we got based on these fact-finding investigations that we've done, there is an estimated 50,000 suspected fraudulent cases which are relayed to our field offices to conduct audits to our local civil registry offices and this is ongoing right now," Grande said.

"We hope to complete before the end of this year because we have also field officers that are on top of these instructions from our head," she added.

According to Grande, the review of birth registrations from 2010 to 2024 was based on the order of PSA National Statistician Dennis Mapa.

Among the parameters that the PSA is checking in the delayed birth registrations are births which were facilitated through hilot or by traditional birth attendants, and those whose registrations declared one of the parents as a foreigner.

"These are the parameters used and we used the 2010 to 2024 birth statistics data to come up with these statistics, the suspected 50,000 fraudulent birth delayed registrations," she said.

The issue on birth registration was brought up in the POGO investigation after senators questioned the identity of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, who is being suspected of being a Chinese spy with links to POGO operations in the municipality.

The birth certificate of Guo, whose fingerprints are identical with Chinese national Guo Hua Ping, was acquired through the late registration process and is now subject to a petition for cancellation in a court in Tarlac City.

Meanwhile, the PSA is seeking amendments to Republic Act 3753, a 1931 law on registry of civil status.

"There's really a need to amend it. It's a 1930 law. There have been a lot of changes and several laws pertaining to civil registration and we have this proposal for a comprehensive CRVS (Civil Registration and Vital Statistics) omnibus bill," Grande said.

Among the proposals that the PSA raised with the committee is the digitalization of the civil registration processes, which will link up the data from hospitals to the local civil registry offices and the PSA. —  VDV, GMA Integrated News