Philippine Consulate General to host ‘Babies Day Mission’

It is going to be a "Babies Day Consular Mission" at the Philippine Consulate General Compound in Al Qusais, Dubai on April 9 (Thursday). 

The special day, the second to be conducted since Feb. 10, 2023, concerns the "Report of Birth" before the issuance of a Philippine passport to a newborn and young children, who have yet to be legally documented as Filipino citizens by the Philippine Government. 

Consul General in Dubai and the Northern Emirates Ambrosio Brian Enciso III told Gulf Today on Monday: "Some consular clients, especially first time parents, only book an appointment for passport issuance for their child; without realising they must first file a Report of Birth before applying for a passport." 

"This accounts for additional clients that we need to accommodate for our civil registry and passport services daily," he added. 

Enciso was optimistic that with the special day, the consular mission, responsible for all Filipinos in Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, and Fujairah, would be able "to accommodate double the number of our daily intake, which we hope would help alleviate the high demand for our services." 

Parents are advised to complete the registration for the proper documentation of their children as Filipino citizens over the Civil Registry Portal of the Philippine Consulate General-Dubai by clicking bit.ly/DubaiPCG-BabiesDay.  

A QR Code would be generated that has to be presented before the Consular Section staff on April 9. 

The online appointments need confirmation. 

Either of the parents and the child, whose birth must be reported before the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), an attached agency of the National Economic Development Authority, must be present on April 9. 

For newborns and children below 12 months, the original documents with five copies each, to be submitted are the Marriage Certificate of the Parents on PSA security paper, valid passports of both parents, English Birth Certificate of the child duly authenticated by the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHaP) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). 

In cases of delayed registration of the Report of Birth, particularly "within 12 months after the date of birth," parents must submit an Affidavit of Delayed Registration and a Negative Certificate of Birth Record from the PSA. 

For children 12 months old and above, the required documents in five copies with the original, are the same. 

The English Birth Certificate must be duly authenticated by the UAE MoHaP and MoFA "OR the English translated Birth Certificate" must be "duly stamped by the UAE Ministry of Justice" and MoFA. 

From Consul General Enciso: "We remind everyone to register the birth of their children in a timely manner to avoid inconvenience in the future, such as incurring fines from the host government, if a child born to foreigner parents is unregistered with the local government within a prescribed period." 

While the Report of Birth of is a birth right, Article 5 of the "Vienna Convention" states that all "consular officers" in all embassies and consulates general worldwide, are permitted "to act as registrars for their citizens in a foreign country. They are authorised to register births of children born to their nationals abroad and issue temporary or permanent documents, provided such actions do not conflict with the laws of the receiving state." 

The internationally-recognised procedure, eases the registration of overseas citizens of each country into the national systems of their respective countries - which, in the Philippines, is the PSA. 

The PSA "collects, compiles, analyses, and publishes statistical information on economic, social, demographic and political and general affairs of the people of the Philippines and enforces the civil registration functions in the country for policy coordination." 

Among the relevance of the Report of Birth through either the Philippine diplomatic or consular posts anywhere in the world, and onwards to the PSA, has to do with the required documents of overseas-born Filipinos for their studies in their home country.