Republic Act 9048, enacted on March 22, 2001, 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 judicial order.
Under Section 1 of the law, it states that “No entry in a civil register shall be changed or corrected without a judicial order, except for clerical or typographical errors and change of first name or nickname which can be corrected or changed by the concerned city or municipal civil registrar or consul general in accordance with the provisions of this Act and its implementing rules and regulations.”
Correction of Clerical Error means 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 error is defined as a mistake committed in performing clerical work in writing, copying, transcribing or typing an entry. It must be harmless or innocuous, visible to the eyes or obvious to understanding, and can be corrected or changed only by reference to other existing records.
A petition for correction of sex can be considered for Correction of Clerical Error if Sex is entered as “Twice” to be corrected to “Female”, but not when sex is entered as “Female” to be corrected to “Male”.
As regards the date of marriage of parents, if the date to be corrected such “UNKNOWN”, “NOT MARRIED”, will involve the change in the status of the child as a legitimate or illegitimate child, it cannot be considered as Correction of Clerical Error.
Examples of clerical errors are misspelling, words are not in the right place or space like the family name of the mother is stated as part of the child’s last name, wrong dates – “June 22, 2001” instead of “June 12, 2001” when the date of registration appearing in the Certificate of Live Birth is “June 15, 2001” which means the fact of birth of the child could not have been registered before he was born. Place of birth may also be considered for Correction of Clerical Error.
