A bill on lifetime validity of birth, death and marriage certificates lapsed into law last July 28.
Republic Act No. 11909, an act providing permanent validity to these government certificates, was left unacted upon by the President.
Pursuant to Article VI, Section 27(1) of the Constitution, a bill may automatically become a law if the President does not sign a bill within 30 days from receipt in his office.
Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., the sponsor of measure, said: “Malugod tayo na naipasa na ang ‘Permanent Validity of the Certificates of Live Birth, Death, and Marriage Act’ na pinagsikapan at pinagtulong-tulungan natin na madinig sa Senado.”
Revilla, who also chairs othe Senate committee on civil service, government reorganization, and professional regulation, had earlier said that the measure aims to ease unnecessary burden of Filipinos in terms of “time and money in securing new copies of their documents”.
The new law provides for permanent validity to all certificates of live birth, death, and marriage issued – duly certified by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), its predecessor, the National Statistics Office, local civil registries and Philippine foreign service posts.
The documents, however, will have a lifetime validity “provided that the document remains intact, readable and still visibly contains the authenticity and security features”.
Under the measure, all government offices, private companies, schools, and non-government entities will be banned from requiring newly-issued birth, death, or marriage certificates from those transacting business with them.
A jail term of up to six months or a fine of at least PHP5,000-P10,000, or both await entities who will require these documents to be obtained in the past six months.
