Section 1. Civil Register. — A civil register is established
for recording the civil status of persons, in which shall be entered:
(a) births; (b) deaths; (c) marriages; (d) annulments of marriages; (e)
divorces; (f) legitimations; (g) adoptions; (h) acknowledgment of
natural children; (i) naturalization; and (j) changes of name.
Sec. 2. Civil Registrar-General his duties and
powers. — The director of the National Library shall be Civil
Registrar-General and shall enforce the provisions of this Act. The
Director of the National Library, in his capacity as Civil
Registrar-General, is hereby authorized to prepare and issue, with the
approval of the Secretary of Justice, regulations for carrying out the
purposes of this Act, and to prepare and order printed the necessary
forms for its proper compliance. In the exercise of his functions as
Civil Registrar-General, the Director of the National Library shall
have the power to give orders and instructions to the local Civil
registrars with reference to the performance of their duties as such.
It shall be the duty of the Director of the National Library to report
any violation of the provisions of this Act and all irregularities,
negligence or incompetency on the part of the officers designated as
local civil registrars to the (Chief of the Executive Bureau or the
Director of the Non-Christian Tribes) Secretary of the Interior, as the
case may be, who shall take the proper disciplinary action against the
offenders.
Sec. 3. Local Civil Registrars. — Except in the
City of Manila, where the duties of local civil registrar shall be
performed by the officer of the Philippine Health Service designated by
the Director of said service, the Treasurers of the regular
municipalities, municipal districts and cities shall be local civil
registrars of the respective municipalities, municipal districts or
cities and shall perform the duties imposed upon them by this Act
without extra compensation, in addition to their ordinary duties. In
his capacity as local civil registrar, the officer designated by the
Director of the Health Service as local civil registrar of Manila and
the treasurers above mentioned shall be under the direction and
supervision of the Civil Registrar-General.
Sec. 4. Civil Register Books. — The local
registrars shall keep and preserve in their offices the following
books, in which they shall, respectively make the proper entries
concerning the civil status of persons:
1. Birth and death register;
2. Marriage register, in which shall be entered not
only the marriages solemnized but also divorces and dissolved
marriages.
3. Legitimation, acknowledgment, adoption, change of
name and naturalization register.
Sec. 5. Registration and Certification of Birth. —
The declaration of the physician or midwife in attendance at the birth
or, in default thereof, the declaration of either parent of the newborn
child, shall be sufficient for the registration of a birth in the civil
register. Such declaration shall be exempt from the documentary stamp
tax and shall be sent to the local civil registrar not later than
thirty days after the birth, by the physician, or midwife in attendance
at the birth or by either parent of the newly born child.
In such declaration, the persons above mentioned shall certify to the
following facts: (a) date and hour of birth; (b) sex and nationality of
infant; (c) names, citizenship, and religion of parents or, in case the
father is knot known, of the mother alone; (d) civil status of parents;
(e) place where the infant was born; (f) and such other data may be
required in the regulation to be issued.
In the case of an exposed child, the person who found the same shall
report to the local civil registrar the place, date and hour of finding
and other attendant circumstances.
In case of an illegitimate child, the birth certificate shall be signed
and sworn to jointly by the parents of the infant or only the mother if
the father refuses. In the latter case, it shall not be permissible to
state or reveal in the document the name of the father who refuses to
acknowledge the child, or to give therein any information by which such
father could be identified.
Any fetus having human features which dies after twenty four hours of
existence completely disengaged from the maternal womb shall be entered
in the proper registers as having been born and having died.
Sec. 6. Death certificate and register. — No human
body shall be buried unless the proper death certificate has been
presented and recorded in the office of the local civil registrar. The
physician who attended the deceased or, in his default the health
officer concerned, or in default of the latter, any member of the
family of the deceased or any person having knowledge of the death,
shall report the same to the local health authorities, who shall issue
a death certificate and shall order the same to be recorded in the
office of the local civil registrar. The death certificate, which shall
be issued by the attending physician of the deceased or, in his
default, by the proper health officer, shall contain the following data
be furnished by the person reporting the death; (a) date and place of
death; (b) full name, (c) age, (d) sex, (e) occupation or profession,
(f) residence; (g) status as regards marriage, (h) nationality of the
deceased, and (i) probable cause of death.
During epidemics, bodies may be buried provided the proper death
certificates have been secured, which shall be registered not later
than five days after the burial of the body.
Sec. 7. Registration of marriages. — All civil
officers and priests or ministers authorized to solemnize marriages
shall send a copy of each marriage contract solemnized by them to the
local civil registrar within the time limit specified in the existing
Marriage Law.
In cases of divorce and annulment of marriage, it shall be the duty of
the successful petitioner for divorce or annulment of marriage to send
a copy of the final decree of the court to that local civil registrar
of the municipality where the dissolved or annulled marriage was
solemnized.
In the marriage register there shall be entered the full name and
address of each of the contracting parties, their ages, the place and
date of the solemnization of the marriage, the names and addresses of
the witnesses, the full name, address, and relationship of the minor
contracting party or parties or the person or persons who gave their
consent to the marriage, and the full name, title, and address of the
person who solemnized the marriage.
In cases of divorce or annulment of marriages, there shall be recorded
the names of the parties divorced or whose marriage was annulled, the
date of the decree of the court, and such other details as the
regulations to be issued may require.
Sec. 8. Registration of legitimations by
subsequent marriage. — The acknowledgment of the children legitimated
by subsequent marriage, referred to in article one hundred and
twenty-one of the Civil Code, may be recorded in the legitimation
register, entering: (a) The names of the parents; (b) that at the time
when the children were conceived, the aforesaid parents could have
contracted marriage, and that they actually contracted marriage,
stating the date and place when such marriage was solemnized, the
minister who officiated, and the civil register where such marriage was
recorded; (c) the names of the children legitimated with reference to
their birth certificates.
Sec. 9. Registration of acknowledgment by public
instrument. — Any voluntary acknowledgment by the natural parents or by
only one of them by public instrument, shall be recorded in the
acknowledgment register of the civil registrar of the municipality
where the decree was issued. The names of the interested parties and
such other data as may be required by the regulations to be issued
shall be entered in register.
It shall be the duty of the natural parents whose voluntary
acknowledgment was may be means of a public instrument to send a
certified copy thereof to the local civil registrar of the municipality
in the civil register whereof the birth of the acknowledged child was
recorded, not later than twenty days after the execution of such
instrument, for the registration thereof.
Sec. 10. Registrations of adoptions, changes of
name, and naturalization. — In cases of adoptions, changes of name, and
naturalization, it shall be the duty of the interested parties or
petitioners to register the same in the local civil registrar of the
municipality where the birth of the acknowledged child was registered
setting forth the following data: (a) full name of the natural child
acknowledged; (b) age; (c) date and place of birth; (d) status as to
marriage, and residence of the child acknowledged, (e) full name of the
natural father or mother who makes the acknowledgment; (f) full name of
the notary public before whom the document was acknowledged; (g) full
names of witnesses to document; (h) date and place of acknowledgment of
said document and entry and page number of the notarial register in
which the name was recorded.
Sec. 11. Duties of clerks of Court to register
certain decisions. — In cases of legitimation, acknowledgment,
adoption, naturalization and change of given or family name, or both,
upon the decree which issued the decree to ascertain whether the same
has been registered, and if this has not been done, to have said decree
recorded in the office of the civil registrar of the municipality where
the court is functioning.
Sec. 12. Duties of local civil registrar. — Local
civil registrars shall (a) file registrable certificates and documents
presented to them for entry; (b) complete the same monthly and prepare
and send any information required of them by the Civil
Registrar-General;. (c) issue certified transcripts or copies of any
certificate or document registered upon payment of proper fees; (d)
order the binding, properly classified, of all certificates or
documents registered during the year; (e) send to the Civil
Registrar-General, during the first ten days of each month, a copy of
the entries made during the preceding month for filing; (f) index the
same to facilitate search and identification in case any information is
required, and (g) administer oaths, free of charge, for civil register
purposes.
Sec. 13. Documents registered are public
documents. — The books making up the civil register and all documents
relating thereto shall be considered public documents and be prima
facie evidence of the truth of the facts therein contained. They shall
be open to the public during office hours and shall be kept in a
suitable safe which shall be furnished to the local civil registrar at
the expense of the general fund of the municipality concerned. The
local registrar shall not under any circumstances permit any document
entrusted to his care to be removed from his office, except by order of
a court, in which case the proper receipt shall be taken. The local
civil registrar may issue certified copies of any document filed, upon
payment of the proper fees required in this Act.
Sec. 14. Expenses and fees of the office of the
civil registrar. — All expenses in connection with the establishment of
local civil registers shall be paid out of municipal funds, and for
this purpose, municipal councils and boards shall make the necessary
appropriation out of their available general funds: (These fees have
been increased)
For the registration of documents and for certified copies of documents
on file in the local civil registrar's office, fees shall be charged in
accordance with the following schedule:
For registration of legitimations P2.00
For registration of an adoption 2.00
For registration of an annulment of marriage 10.00
For registration of a divorce 10.00
For registration of naturalization 20.00
For registration of a change of name 2.00
For certified copies of any documents in the
register, for each one hundred
words 20.00
The Civil Registrar General or any local civil registrar may issue
certified copies of documents free of charge for official use or at the
request of a competent court. All fees collected for such purposes
shall accrue to the general fund of the municipality concerned.
Sec. 15. Preservation of present register books. —
All birth, death and marriage registers and other papers relating
thereto at present in the keeping of the municipal secretaries or the
clerk of the Municipal Court of Manila shall be transferred by the same
to the officers acting as local civil registrars in each city or
municipality and shall form part of the archives of the
latter.
Sec. 16. False statement. — Any person who shall
knowingly make false statement in the forms furnished and shall present
the same for entry in the civil register, shall be punished by
imprisonment for not less than one month nor more than six months, or
by a fine of not less than two hundred pesos nor more than five hundred
or both, in the discretion of the court.
Sec. 17. Failure to report. — Other violations. —
Any person whose duty is to report any fact concerning the civil status
of persons and who knowingly fails to perform such duty, and any person
convicted of having violated any of the provisions of this Act shall be
punished by a fine of not less than ten pesos nor more than two
hundred.
Sec. 18. Neglect of duty with reference to the
provisions of this Act. — Any local registrar who fails properly to
perform his duties in accordance with the provisions of this Act and of
the regulations issued hereunder, shall be punished for the first
offense, by an administrative fine in a sum equal to his salary for not
less than fifteen days nor more than three months, and for a second or
repeated offense, by removal from the service.
Sec. 19. Application of this Act to the special
provinces. — The Director of the National Library, in his capacity as
Civil Registrar-General, is hereby authorized upon recommendation of
the (Director of Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes) Secretary of the
Interior, to designate the municipalities in the specially organized
provinces where the provisions of this Act shall be
applied.
Sec. 20. Transitory provisions. — All rights,
duties and powers established by Act Numbered thirty-six hundred and
thirteen, entitled the Marriage Law, with the reference to the
procedure for the issuance of the marriage license prior to the
solemnization of marriage, the registration, of marriages, and the
filing of the documents in connection therewith, conferred and imposed
by said Act upon the clerk of the Municipal Court of Manila and the
municipal secretaries, are hereby transferred to the officer of the
Health Service in accordance with section three of this Act, and to the
municipal treasurers, respectively, in their capacity as local
registrars.
All duties and powers established by subsections (d) and (e) of section
twenty-one hundred and twelve of the Administrative Code, imposed and
conferred by said section upon the municipal secretaries, are hereby
likewise transferred to the municipal treasurers in their capacity as
local civil registrars.
Sec. 21. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent
herewith are hereby repealed.
Sec. 22. This Act shall take effect three months
after its approval.
Approved: November 26,
1930
|