More couples using law giving kids dads’ names

TACLOBAN CITY—More unmarried couples in this city have availed themselves of the law allowing children born out of wedlock to use the family name of their father.

Judy Borja, chief of the Tacloban City office of the civil registrar, said the number of children who have changed their family names to that of their fathers’ has increased from 832 in 2010 to 1,300 last year.

One of the couples who availed themselves of Republic Act No. 9255 (An Act Allowing Illegitimate Children to Use the Surname of their Father, amending the Family Code of the Philippines) that was passed in 2004, was Rodel and Maricel Estoqui who have been living together for the past eight years.

Until recently, the couple’s four children have been using the mother’s family name. Estoqui’s three children started to use their father’s family name last year while their youngest, a 3-year-old, legally started to use her father’s family name on Tuesday.

This month, 37 couples have applied for a change of family name of their children.

To avail themselves of this law, the couple would have to pay P300 and submit valid identification of both parents and affidavits of both parents, including one expressing the father’s consent.

Borja said the law was more for the benefit of the children.

“Using their fathers’ names is their right. Imagine, they will be using their mothers’ names without having a middle name?” she said.

Aside from being an inherent right, carrying a father’s name gives a child a sense of security that he or she has a father, Borja said.