The House Committee on Ways and Means on Monday approved a bill providing a free and culture-sensitive civil registration system for Indigenous Peoples (IPs).
The panel, chaired by Albay Rep. Joey Salceda approved without amendments Section 6 of the unnumbered substitute bill to House Bills 2812 and 1332, principally authored by Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez and the Makabayan bloc, respectively.
Section 6 of the bill states that IPs would be exempted from payment of all fees in the recording of their birth, marriage and death, as well as notarial fees and document stamp tax.
As of 2009, Rodriguez said the estimated population of the Philippines is 92,226,600 people.
“Various studies place the number of ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines at over 100, making the country one of the most ethnically diverse in Asia. The 2000 Philippine Census also estimates 6.3 million Indigenous Peoples belonging to 85 ethnolinguistic groups,” he said.
Rodriguez said the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), however, has different data sets based on “unofficial surveys of population by ethnographic region.”
Also, he said an International Labor Organization publication, for instance, cites NCIP data estimating the number of IPs at 13.5 million.
“This information is also outdated, being based on the 1996 listings of the defunct Offices of the Southern Cultural Communities and Northern Cultural Communities,” he said.
“These discrepancies are not only due to classification limitations, or other factors, but also because some indigenous peoples have difficulties in registering marriages, births, or deaths. It therefore becomes apparent that many IPs are not registered. Without a legal birth record, an individual does not officially exist and therefore lacks legal access to the privileges and protection of a nation,” Rodriguez pointed out.
According to the lawmaker, birth registration is not generally known among disadvantaged Filipinos particularly among IPs and underprivileged families with children in need of special protection.
“Among these groups, birth registration remains insignificant. Many of them understand the implications of non-registration only when they get to experience problems in transactions requiring proofs of name, age or nationality,” he added.
“This lack of birth registration is often caused by the fact that many of these IPs are indigent and lack the necessary finances to be able to register. There is thus a need to encourage these IPs into registering in order for the State to afford them the necessary protection they deserve,” Rodriguez added.