Tacloban City, Leyte – Some 2,110 partner-beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program from the provinces of Samar, Leyte, and Eastern Samar received a free copy of their live birth registration certificate last February 23, 2015.

In a Civil Society Organization (CSO)-led conference on Civil Registration held recently at the Ritz Tower de Leyte, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman commended the group behind the Mobile Civil Registration Project for helping Typhoon Yolanda survivors recover and reconstruct their civil records which were lost or damaged by the typhoon.

The project, which was launched in April 2014 and is still ongoing, is spearheaded by the Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Legal Services (IDEALS) in partnership with the DSWD; Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA); United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); 20 local Civil Registrar’s Office of Leyte, Samar, and Eastern Samar; and various CSOs such as Plan International and Save the Children International.

“This project is essential because you are providing the beneficiaries with vital documents that would establish their identity and entitlement to their rights and privileges. Without the birth certificate, you can’t have the death certificate and your right to anything from the government or from anyone,” Sec. Soliman explained.

The project has two phases. Phase I, which is undertaken by the UNDP as lead CSO partner, has targeted to restore 83,790 civil registry documents of ‘Yolanda’ survivors in Eastern Visayas. To date, a total of 126,078 documents have been reconstructed.

Of this, around 8,000 documents belong to beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

On the other hand, a total of 10,061 legal documents were produced for some 3,723 households. This resulted in an estimated aggregate sum of P30.71 million worth of benefits accessed by the beneficiaries.

For Phase II, which is implemented by UNICEF as CSO partner, a total of 43,266 civil registry documents were submitted to the local civil registrar’s offices, while 6,000 legal documents of Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries were facilitated.

Sec. Soliman added that civil registration does not just go beyond identifying people, but it also facilitates access to social and child protection programs and services.

She also cited the importance of civil documents especially for the beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilya.

“To help identify our Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries, among the documents that we need are birth and marriage certificates,” the Secretary continued.

The Secretary expressed optimism that this initiative will continue until all Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries, whose documents were destroyed during the typhoon, will be provided with a copy of their civil registry documents.

For his part, IDEALS Executive Director Egad Ligon said, “Since 2013 we have been trying to help disaster survivors to reconstruct or register their civil records and obtain copies of their birth or marriage certificates or the death certificates of their relatives.”

He added that they have already assisted around 120,000 ‘Yolanda’ survivors since 2013 and that they are targeting to assist another 120,000 survivors for this phase. ###