The most important documents in your life -- Katrina Legarda
KAT'S EYE | KATRINA LEGARDA, abs-cbnNEWS.com | 10/08/2008 8:33 AM
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I was surfing the Net the other day and saw a blog of a woman who said that she didn't have a birth certificate yet and that she wouldn't bother to get one until she was ready to apply for a passport. Oh God, I thought, trouble in the making.
Hence this column: what are the most important documents in your life.
First you are born. If you are lucky enough to have been born in a hospital, the nurse or other staff member will have assisted your mother in filling up the form that will lead to a birth certificate.
You hope that any one of the following occurred:
(a) if your parents are legally married to each other, that your father signed the document and that their wedding date was indicated;
(b) if your parents are not married, or their marriage is void, that your father signed the document and left the wedding date blank;
(c) if your father did not want to acknowledge you, that the father was indicated as unknown.
The Supreme Court has, on many occasions, ruled that where a father did not sign the birth certificate, he cannot be considered the father of a child – even if the child is legitimate!!!!!
SO, ask your mother as soon as you read this.
Then you pray that the hospital sent the form over to the Civil Registrar of the place where you were born, and thereafter, you keep your fingers crossed that the Civil Registrar sent the issued birth certificate to the National Statistics Office for recording.
In your life, you will need the NSO-authenticated birth certificate to get a passport, a US or other visa, and to marry.
If you were born at home, the midwife or hilot should have advised your mother to register your birth. If you now discover that your birth was not registered, you need to undergo late registration.
You will need the affidavits of your parents, or one of them if the other is gone; the affidavit of the hilot; or the affidavits of two disinterested persons who knew that you were actually born on a certain date to a specific set of parents.
If you were adopted, the court will cause the cancellation of your first birth certificate and will issue you a new one in your new name and with your new parents indicated in the certificate.
If you were not adopted, but you do not know who your parents are, ask the DSWD to help you get a certificate of some kind, perhaps a foundling one, so that you can get yourself a birth certificate.
You have a right to this. Again, you will need the NSO-authenticated certificate to get a passport, a US or other visa, and when you marry.
The next event in your life may be marriage.
You and your affianced will need to obtain a license to marry. You get this at the office of the civil registrar of the place where you live, or where one of you lives.
Whoever marries you must issue a certificate of marriage. This certificate must be registered with the local civil registrar of the place where you married, so, if you think you are being romantic and you marry in the Banaue rice terraces, remember that one day you may have to go all the way back there to get a copy of your marriage certificate if the local civil registrar did not send the certificate on to the National Statistics Office.
You will need an NSO-authenticated copy of your marriage contract to get a passport, a US or other visa, and to file your petition for nullity of marriage (should that awful event occur). In the latter event (knock on wood it doesn't happen to you), the NSO and the local civil registrar will annotate the fact of the nullity of your marriage on the certificate of marriage so that the court can issue you a decree of finality that will enable you to... well.... re-marry!
When a parent dies, you need to register the death with the civil registrar. You will need an authenticated death certificate to file estate proceedings in court and to seek inheritance from your parent.
If you inherit property, please make sure you have certificates of title to the same transferred.
Make sure the property is registered in your name alone (although the Register of Deeds may require you to indicate the name of your spouse, know that the Supreme Court has ruled that the phrase “married to” is indicative merely of civil status, not ownership). Do not give the original of your titles to any person, however much you trust them.
Finally, make copies of all your documents. If you lose any of these documents, at least you can show the relevant government agency a copy so that it won't take so long to search. If you can afford it, have certified true copies made of all these documents. Buy a plastic envelope. Line it with paper. And put all the documents inside. Leave a set with a bank, or a lawyer, or a sibling.
Use your commonsense!
You can write me at newsfeedback@abs-cbn.com.