Negrense couple, 9 kids simultaneously obtain birth certificates

BACOLOD CITY - A married couple and their nine children from a remote village in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental finally obtained birth certificates in official security paper (SECPA) through the Birth Registration Assistance Project (BRAP) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Residing in mountainous Sitio Bula, Barangay Carol-an, geographical limitations partly caused the delay in the birth registrations of Julito Amper, 50, and wife Marisa Amorganda, 48, as well as nine of their 10 children. Only the birth of their eldest child is found in PSA records. 'I'm grateful to the PSA-Negros Occidental and the Civil Registrar's Office of Kabankalan City for making civil registration services more accessible to people from the far-flung areas through their mobile registration initiatives,' Amper said in a statement on Friday issued through the PSA. By registering simultaneously under the BRAP, the Amper-Amorganda family set the record for having the most number of birth registrations filed at the sa me time under a single household in Negros Occidental and in the country according to the PSA. On Sept. 4, all 11 of them received their birth certificates in the official SECPA for free, along with tokens from the PSA-Negros Occidental and the City of Kabankalan, from Acting City Civil Registrar Monalisa Tabujara and representatives of PSA-Negros Occidental. The nine siblings are Junly, 27; Jomar, 21; Mica, 18; Melie, 16; Joniboy, 13; Joemary, 11; Julimar, 9; Julito Jr., 8; and Josil, 5. Two of the couple's grandchildren also obtained birth certificates through the BRAP. From the residence of the Amper-Amorganda family, it takes a 20-minute trek to reach the barangay proper, and about an hour and a half, mainly through tricycle, to the city center. In July last year, the PSA-Negros Occidental also issued the birth certificate in official SECPA of a 101-year-old woman from Kabankalan City through the BRAP. Enriquita Quillano Olitan, who was born on Sept. 5, 1921, became the province's oldest BRAP benefi ciary when she received her birth document at her residence in the far-flung Purok Narra 1 in Barangay Tampalon. Under the BRAP, the PSA collaborates with the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the local government units to increase civil registration especially in marginalized communities and the poorest sector to ensure that all births of Filipino are registered in local civil registry offices. Source: Philippines News agency