BUTUAN CITY – The city civil registry  of Butuan has recently registered indigenous people living in Barangay Anticala.

The Barangay Civil Registry System (BCRS) aims to bring free birth registration to the grassroots level, assisting Butuanons, especially the indigenous community, who are unable to process late birth registration due to financial constraints, living in rural areas, geographically isolated areas, danger zones, and disaster-prone areas.

The registration held in Barangay Anticala was organized in partnership with Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Caraga, 29th Infantry Battalion, and barangay officials.

The city government of Butuan brought the services on birth registration in Barangay Anticala for the members of their  IP community. They thanked the city government for helping them get their birth certificates for free and without hassle and long travel. Photo courtesy of Butuan City PIO. 

Bae Lingganay Helen Pojaras, IP chairperson of the barangay, immediately lined up in the barangay hall to avail of the services.

"Dili namo masukat ang kalipay nga among nadawat sa mga serbisyo sa atong pang gobyerno, labi na gyud ang birth certificate tungod para sa tribu kay kasagaran ang tribu ang nag problema gyud sa birth certificate. [We cannot measure the happiness we felt for the services we received from the government, especially on the birth certificate for the IPs because this is really the problem of most of our tribal members],” Pojaras said.

She thanked the local government for granting their request.

“Nalipay kaayo me sa pag-facilitate sa 29th IB sa pagpanguna ni commanding officer, Lt. Col. Cresencio Gargar, kay mismo siya ang niadto sa IP Community Office sa Iyao. Nangutana siya kung unsa ang iyang ikatabang gikan sa gobyerno. [We are grateful to the 29 IB for facilitating our request, led by commanding officer  Lt. Col. Cresencio Gargar, who went to the IP Community Office in Iyao and personally asked what assistance we needed from the government],” she added.

Meanwhile, Amalia Que, head of the City Civil Registry Department  announced that this service to the barangay will continue with the city’s upcoming observance of free birth registration for the entire month of February for the vulnerable sector of society.

“This will be a simultaneous free mobile birth registration to selected barangays on top of the registration in the office, as mandated by Sangguniang Panlungsod Ordinance No. 4427-2014 that declared the month of February of every year as free birth registration month in the city of Butuan,” Que said. (RLE/PIA-Caraga with a report from Butuan City PIO)