(Eagle News) – The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) stressed that the birth certificates it is issuing do not expire.
The government office made the clarification amid the confusion that arose from various government and private offices, including schools, that require applicants or those transacting with them to submit birth certificates issued within the last six months or the last year.
While the PSA said that it does change its security paper used for birth certificates and other documents regularly, this does not invalidate previously issued birth certificates.
Aware of this practice by some government and private agencies, Senate President Pro Tempore Raplh Recto has filed a bill conferring lifetime validity on a birth certificate and mandating government agencies to accept a birth certificate regardless of when it was issued has been filed in the Senate.
-Recto files bill to end practice of offices requiring new birth certificates-
Recto said he introduced the measure to end the practice of government and private offices requiring applicants for a document, permit, service or job to present a new or recently-issued birth certificate.
“Magastos sa aplikante ang requirement na kailangang brand new ang birth certificate. Dagdag pa ang pahirap sa pagkuha,” he said.
To the credit of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), “it has never been remiss in explaining that birth certificates it has issued have no expiry dates, but this assurance remains unheeded in many offices which continue to require that the submitted birth certificate was issued within the past six months,” Recto explained.
Birth certificates certified by the PSA are printed on security paper, otherwise known as SECPA.
“While SECPA over the years has changed in appearance to keep the proliferation of fraudulent birth certificates and identities at bay, the PSA has been emphatic in its assurance that such does not remove the validity of the birth certificate,” Recto said in the bill’s explanatory note.
