Civil registry month celebrates 31st yr
BAGUIO CITY – Vital statistics for the past months were revealed by Chief Statistical Specialist Imelda Buyuccan of the Philippine Statistics Authority-Benguet office, as part of PSA’s 31st yr celebration, during the city hall flag raising ceremonies last week.
From June to December 2020, there were Covid-19 related deaths of which 66.67% were males and 33.33% females; 7.4% of total marriages recorded in the city were grooms and brides between 47 and 90 years old while of the total registered 7,556 births for 2020, 49.60 are of illegitimate status. The information was generated and culled out from the decentralized vital statistics system, Buyuccan clarified.
Registered births, marriages and deaths for year 2020 is lower than that of 2019. This is atypical, since Baguio statistics usually registered a yearly increase in all mentioned events, Buyuccan pointed out.
Most of the registered births and deaths came from hospitals and clinics in the city, she added.
The PSA, formerly the National Statistics Office (NSO), is created under Republic Act 10625, which reorganizes the Philippine Statistical System, repealing executive order 120, and entitled reorganizing the PSA and for other purposes. It shall “plan, develop, prescribe, disseminate and enforce policies, rules and regulations and coordinated government-wide programs governing the production of official statistics, general purpose statistics, civil services and the Philippine Identification System.”
February of every year is declared as Civil Registration Month through Proclamation 682, affirmed by President Corazon Aquino on Jan. 28, 1991, wherein births, deaths, marriages and other events concerning civil status of persons are continuously and compulsory recorded.
In her message Buyuccan stated that PSA is bound to remind the citizenry of their duty to “register acts and events concerning status of persons.” This is for the enhancement of “nationwide awareness and appreciation of the legal, administrative and statistical values of civil registry documents and underscore the necessity for congress to provide adequate funds for enforcement and administration of laws on civil registration,” she added.
Registered documents have legal and administrative values in monitoring population growth and in planning for social and economic development, Buyuccan further said.
Buyuccan also expressed gratitude and admiration to the Baguio City Local Civil Registration head Bernardina Tabin and personnel for the timely submission of reports to her office. The Benguet PSA office covers the Baguio LCR and that of Atok, Bakun, Bokod, Buguias, Itogon, Kabayan, Kapangan, Kibungan, La Trinidad, Mankayan, Sablan, Tuba, and Tublay.
The theme for this year is “Strengthening Civil Registration and Vital Statistics’ Digital Information: the ways to manage the new normal,” Buyuccan ended. – Julie G. Fianza with reports from the PSA Benguet office
