What Is Republic Act 9048?
What Is Republic Act 9048?
Republic Act (RA) 9048 authorizes the city or municipal civil registrar or the consul general to correct a clerical or typographical
error in an entry and/or change the first name or nickname in the civil register without need of a judicial order.
RA 9048 amends Articles 376 and 412 of the Civil Code of the Philippines, which prohibit the change of name or surname of a
person, or any correction or change of entry in a civil register without a judicial order.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo approved the act on 22 March 2001. With the law taking effect on 22 April 2001, the Civil
Registrar-General promulgated Administrative Order No. 1 Series of 2001, which was published in the newspaper in August that
year.
RA 9048 allows these corrections: correction of clerical or typographical errors in any entry in civil registry documents, except
corrections involving the change in sex, age, nationality and status of a person.
(A clerical or typographical error refers to an obvious mistake committed in clerical work, either in writing, copying, transcribing,
or typing an entry in the civil register that is harmless and innocuous, such as a misspelled name or misspelled place of birth and
the like, and can be corrected or changed only by reference to other existing record or records.) Change of a person's first name in
his/her civil registry document under certain grounds specified under the law through administrative process.
WHAT ARE THE CONDITIONS UNDER RA 9048 THAT THE PETITIONER NEEDS TO COMPLY WITH?
(1) The petitioner finds the first name or nickname to be ridiculous, tainted with dishonor or extremely difficult to write or
pronounce;
(2) The new first name or nickname has been habitually and continuously used by the petitioner and he has been publicly known
by that first name or nickname in the community; or,
A person is considered of legal age when he is eighteen years old and above. Thus, a minor (less than eighteen years old) cannot
by himself file a petition, either for correction of clerical or typographical error or for change of his first name.
Only the following persons are considered to have a direct and personal interest in the correction of clerical error or change of
first name:
Owner of the record that contains the error to be corrected or first name to be changed
Owner's spouse, children, parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, guardian, or any other person duly authorized by law or by the
owner of the document sought to be corrected.
The petition, whether it is for correction of clerical error or for a change of first name, should be accomplished properly and in
the prescribed form. Section 5 of RA 9048 and Rule 8 of Administrative Order No. 1, S. 2001 require that the petition should be
in the form of an affidavit, hence, it should be subscribed and sworn to before a person authorized to administer oath.
Basically, the petition must contain the following facts or information: Merits of the petition, competency of the petitioner,
erroneous entry to be corrected and proposed correction; first name to be changed and the proposed new first name.
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Philippine Statistics Authority. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov.ph/civilregistration/civil-registration-
laws/faq-republic-act-no-9048. 01 April 2016
The petition shall not be processed unless the petitioner supports it with the required documents. The supporting documents
should be authentic and genuine, otherwise, the petition shall be denied or disapproved pursuant to Rule 5.8 of Administrative
Order No. 1, S. 2001. The following supporting documents are admissible as basic requirements:
Certified machine copy of the certificate containing the alleged erroneous entry or entries
Not less than 2 public or private documents upon which the correction shall be based. Examples of these documents are the
following: baptismal certificate, voter's affidavit, employment record, GSIS/SSS record, medical record, school record, business
record, driver's license, insurance, land titles, certificate of land transfer, bank passbook, NBI/police clearance, civil registry
records of ascendants, and others.
As in the case of correction of clerical error, no petition for change of first name shall be accepted unless the petitioner submits
the required supporting papers, as follows:
All the documents required of the petitioner for the correction of clerical error shall also be required of the petitioner for change
of first name.
Clearance from authorities such as clearance from employer, if employed; the National Bureau of Investigation; the Philippine
National Police; and other clearances as may be required by the concerned C/MCR.
Proof of Publication. An affidavit of publication from the publisher and copy of the newspaper clippings should be attached.
The C/MCR and the District/Circuit Registrar (D/CR) are authorized to collect from every petitioner the following rates of filing
fees:
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Philippine Statistics Authority. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov.ph/civilregistration/civil-registration-
laws/faq-republic-act-no-9048. 01 April 2016
One thousand pesos (P1,000.00) for the correction of clerical error
In the case of a petition filed with the Consul General (CG), the fees are the same for all Philippine Consulates. The fees are the
following: Fifty U.S. dollars ($50.00) for the correction of clerical or typographical error
One hundred fifty U.S. dollars ($150.00) for the change of first name
A migrant petitioner shall pay an additional service fee to the Petition Receiving Civil Registrar (PRCR).
This service fee shall accrue to the local treasury of the PRCR.
The general rule is that petition shall be filed with the Local Civil Registry Office (LCRO) where the record containing the
clerical error to be corrected or first name to be changed is kept. Included in this general rule is the case of the Office of the Clerk
of Shari'a Court where records of divorces, revocations of divorces, conversions to Islam are kept and where some Muslim
marriages are registered.
However, in case the petitioner is a migrant within or outside the Philippines, meaning his present residence or domicile is
different from where his civil registry record or records are registered, he may file the petition in the nearest LCRO in his area.
His petition will be treated as a migrant petition. 13
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Philippine Statistics Authority. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov.ph/civilregistration/civil-registration-
laws/faq-republic-act-no-9048. 01 April 2016