In relation to my previous blog post on Illegitimate Child not Required to use Father's Surname even if Acknowledged, many unwed mothers whose children were forced to use the father's surname (between the years 2004 and 2014) because of Office of the Civil Registrar General's erroneous interpretation of the law now ask if there is a remedy.
The all too common scenario is that the illegitimate child is recognized/acknowledged during birth or perhaps sometime afterwards by the father. After executing certain documents, a few smiles for the camera here and there with the baby, the father's surname is now proudly emblazoned on the child's Certificate of Live Birth; for whatever reason, the parents don't marry, and a few weeks, months, or even years after, the unwed parents' relationship break down, they part ways (perhaps due to lack of support, RA9262, etc., kabit, other relationships, and whatever else you can think of) the unwed mother now regrets having her child use the father's surname. Often times, the child is still too young to understand what is going on. What can the mother do to have this corrected?
Rule 108 of the Rules of Court is the solution to the problem. This rule provides for the procedure for the Cancellation or Correction of Entries in the Civil Registry. This petition shall be filed with the Regional Trial Court where the birth was recorded. Say for example, the birth occurred in Cebu City and the Local City Civil Registrar of the City of Cebu issued the Certificate of Live Birth, you need to file it with the RTC of the City of Cebu, even if you are already a resident of some other locality.
Most definitely it is imperative that the child's father would have to be impleaded as a respondent together with of the Local Civil Registrar's Office, and any other person who may have a claim or interest in the proceedings. It is important that you discuss with your lawyer all possible interested persons/parties. Take note, the Notice of Hearing issued by the court will have to be published in a newspaper of general circulation once a week for three consecutive weeks. If you fail to do that then your petition is dead in the water.
It would be best that this petition is filed when the child is still young so that his school records would not be affected all that much. Filing the petition when the child is a bit older or even of school age may present a lot of problems which he/she will have to live with even into adulthood.
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