Every child is entitled to a name and nationality regardless of age, religion, status or gender.
According to Article 7 of the United Nations Convention on the Right of a Child, birth registration is a primary right of a child.
Last May 11, the free birth registration was launched in barangay Mambaling, Cebu City, with 314 Badjaos as beneficiaries of the P600 registration fee.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD-7), together with the National Statistics office and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) teamed up for the event intended for the beneficiaries of DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
The DILG issued a memorandum circular directing the governors, mayors and other concerned agencies to waive the birth registration fee of 4Ps beneficiaries for the month of May.
Pantawid Pamilya is a poverty reduction strategy of the government that aims to provide conditional cash grants to extremely poor household with children 0-14 years old.
The grants include P500 a month per household for health and P300 a month per child for a maximum of three children.
Since the program started in 2009, it was discovered that some children of 4Ps beneficiaries do not have birth certificates, thus the need to come up with the free birth registration.
Aside from the Badjaos, poor families from the Central Visayas’ provinces of Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental and Siquijor also availed of the free registration, which is one of the government’s anti-poverty programs for the attainment of Millenium Development Goals.
Present at the launching in Mambaling were Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and the regional directors of NSO, DILG, Department of Education, Population Commission and the National Commission for Indigenous People.