Metro Manila, Philippines – The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) has pushed for a law creating an administrative process for the cancellation of foreign nationals’ late registration of birth certificates during a Senate hearing on Thursday, Nov. 5.
Speaking at the Committee on Justice and Human Rights, Assistant Solicitor General James Cundangan said the OSG should be supported by quick actions to address issues on fraudulent birth registrations of foreigners.
“The absurdity of the situation: a late registration is an administrative process, but to cancel (it), you need a judicial process,” he said.
According to the Rules of Court, a cancellation petition must be filed with a judicial court and undergo hearings.
Cundangan cited former Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo’s case, in which the OSG filed for her record cancellation on July 4, 2024 and the favorable decision of the regional trial court was only issued on Sep. 24, 2025.
The OSG suggested that the cancellation process will be easier if done under administrative proceedings, supervised by the executive.
Cundangan said the judicial process requires publication and warm bodies present at the hearing, but evidence such as non-fluency in Tagalog or other local languages is enough if done administratively.
The recommendation was raised after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) recently endorsed to the OSG the cancellation of businessman Joseph Sy’s birth records.
Sy was accused of falsifying his birth registration with a fake baptismal certificate, no civil registry of his parents, and no records from the attending personnel at his birth, according to PSA.
The issue must have begun at the registration itself as the Local Civil Registry (LCR) has “a wide latitude of discretion on the documents they will accept,” said PSA officer Eliezer Ambatali.
LCRs receive technical supervision from the PSA, but the local government units oversee the implementation of those directives.
Meanwhile, the OSG filed the petition on Oct. 12, while the initial hearing has been set for Jan. 27, 2027.
“Napakadali magpa-late registration, napakahirap i-cancel ‘yung late registration,” Cundangan said.
(Translation: It’s so easy to file a late registration, but it’s so difficult to cancel it.)
