The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) – La Union Provincial Statistical Office, together with the La Union Civil Registrars Association (LUCRA), participated in the two-day virtual training on the guidelines in the implementation of the Republic Act (RA) 11222 or Simulated Rectification Act (SIBRA) via Zoom organized by PSA- Regional Statistical Services Office I (RSSO I) on August 12-13, 2021.

RA 11222 is an act allowing the rectification of simulated birth and prescribing administrative adoption proceeding for the purpose. This act grants amnesty and allows the rectification of the simulated birth of a child. Thus, exempting those who simulated the birth record of a child from criminal, civil, and administrative liability prior to March 29, 2019, which is the effectivity of this act. Aside from having a simpler and less costly administrative adoption proceeding, this act will eventually help those children whose births were simulated by giving them all the benefits of adoption.

The virtual training started with a welcome remarks from Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Camille Carla U. Beltran of the Civil Registration and Administrative Support Division (CRASD) followed by a message from Atty. Sheila O. De Guzman, OIC of PSA-Regional Statistical Services Office I (RSSO I).  A pretest was administered simultaneously to the participants before the training proper.

Participants to the training were personnel from the different Provincial Statistical Offices of Region I- Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, and Pangasinan. The LUCRA, headed by their President, Municipal Civil Registrar (MCR) Laida G. Rico of Aringay, also joined the said training.

Meanwhile, resource persons from the PSA Central Office were invited to thoroughly discuss RA 11222. For the first day, Marizza M. Grande, OIC-Assistant National Statistician (ANS) of the Civil Registration Services (CRS), talked about the overview of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of RA 11222 while Elma C. Jabonillo, Registration Officer II (RO II) of the CRS, elaborated the process flow in the filing of petitions for the issuance of the Order of Administrative Adoption and presented the Guidelines of Administrative Adoption under RA 11222. An open forum followed to accommodate questions in the said topics.

During the second day, the participants had a workshop on the different cases on RA 11222. The output from every province was presented. Afterwards, RO II Jabonillo continued her discussion on the Guidelines of Administrative Adoption. All participants were required to take the posttest to determine what they have learned during the training.

Moreover, Atty. Leo B. Malagar, Deputy National Statistician of the Civil Registration and Central Support Office (CRCSO), delivered his speech before the end of the training. Atty. Malagar emphasized the importance of RA 11222 and its role in the advocacy campaign for civil registration and vital statistics.

The training was formally closed by Statistical Specialist II (SS II) Joseph E. Estoesta of PSA RSSO I by thanking all the virtual participants for their active participation in the training.   

DANITES E. TEÑIDO, Ph.D.
Chief Statistical Specialist

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