Amidst torrential rain that battered most of the provinces in Luzon and the National Capital Region, the Sixth National Workshop on Civil Registration (6NWCR), went on successfully as scheduled last August 7-9, 2012 at the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia, Pasay City.

A total of 3,057 participants unexpectedly braved the inclement weather and floods to be able to attend the national activity which is being conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) every two years. Participants included mayors and vice mayors; city/municipal civil registrars (C/MCRs) and their respective civil registry personnel/staff members, barangay officials, and other stakeholders. The number of attendees in the 6NWCR was extraordinarily high and surpassed all records for the same event in the past. A decade ago (2002), the first NWCR was held at the George Dewey Convention Center in Subic, Zambales.

NSO Administrator and Civil Registrar General (CRG) Carmelita N. Ericta, overwhelmed about the turn-out of the event, expressed her happiness and gratitude to the registrants who made it to the undertaking. She added that according to reports that reached her, "there could have been more participants, if they had not been trapped by floods from various places in Metro Manila and if transportation facilities were available to bring them to the venue."

Adopting the theme "Wastong Rehistro, Pananagutan ng Bawat Pilipino," the workshop included paper presentations, extensive discussions and sharing of experiences focused on the topics registration of stateless persons; marriage laws under the Family Code of the Philippines; court decrees and legal instruments; updates on administrative corrections of entries in civil registry documents pursuant to RA 9048 or the Clerical Error Law; modified barangay civil registration system, mobile registration and causes of deaths in the Philippines.

Resource persons who imparted their expertise were Justice Renan E. Ramos, Assistant Solicitor General; Atty. Maria Angela A. Ponce, Director of the Office of Legal Affairs of the Department of Foreign Affairs; and Atty. Danilo L. Concepcion, Dean of the College of Law of the University of the Philippines (UP). Paper presenters from the NSO were Civil Registration Department (CRD) Director Lourdes J. Hufana; MIMAROPA Regional Director Flordeliza J. Monteclaro; CRD-Document Management Division Chief Edith R. Orcilla, CRD-Vital Statistics Division Chief Aurora T. Reolalas. A video on mobile registration in schools was also presented by MCR Ronilo M. Baguio of Cordova, Cebu.

The NSO organizes the NWCR to provide a venue for the discussion of updates, new developments as well as to clarify issues and other concerns about the civil registration system in the country. Questions and gray areas raised by the participants were discussed and threshed-out during the CRG Forum.

The occasion is also taken as the best opportunity to give recognition to the outstanding performances of local civil registry offices (LCROs) in public service delivery at the national and regional levels. The LCROs were classified according to size for the purpose of granting the awards and the topnotchers in the different categories were San Luis, Aurora for Extra Small Category; Torrijos, Marinduque for Small Category; Santa Cruz, Marinduque for Medium Category; Brooke's Point, Palawan for Large Category; and City of Las Pinas for Extra Large Category.

For further details about the recently concluded 6NWCR, please visit the NSO website http://www.census.gov.ph. Just click on the icon and the highlights of the three-day workshop are among the downloadable materials.

 

	(Sgd.) CARMELITA N. ERICTA    Administrator
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