Senator Grace Poe has filed a bill that would pave the way for the timely registration of vulnerable Filipino children.
Senate Bill 332 or the Children in Need of Special Protection (CNSP) Birth Registration Act seeks to provide an enhanced framework for the prompt birth registration of vulnerable Filipino children to guarantee their rights.
“Birth registration is the first crucial step in establishing one’s legal identity and entitlement to state benefits,” Poe stressed.
The bill defines CNSP as persons below 18 or even 18 and older but unable to care for themselves due to physical or mental disability; or who are vulnerable to or victims of abuse, neglect, exploitation, cruelty, discrimination, violence, natural calamities, man-made disasters and other analogous conditions prejudicial to their development as she earlier said that the timely birth registration is a fundamental right of every child.
CNSP includes but are not limited to children who are sexually/physically abused, in situations of armed conflict, displaced, victims of child labor, street children and foundlings as Poe has underscored the need for child welfare citing the Convention on the Rights of the Child and enshrined in the Declaration of Human Rights for the same.
“Non-registration of children makes them invisible to the developmental radar of the state, which must include them in priority initiatives on health, nutrition, education and protection,” Poe stressed.
The bill gives authority to a licensed social worker or persons/institutions with protective custody of the said child to register him or her, in adherence to procedures and the registration shall be made in the Local Civil Registry Office where the child was born or in the place where the child was found.
