Republic v. Sali | G.R. No. 206023 | Apr. 3,
2017 | Correction of Entry |
FACTS
- Lorena Omapas Sali
filed a Verified Petition for Correction of Entry under Rule 108 of the Rules
of Court before the RTC.
- Petitioner is the
daughter of Spouses Vedasto A. Omapas and Almarina A. Albay. Unfortunately, in
recording the facts of her birth, the personnel of the Local Civil Registrar of
Baybay, Leyte[,] thru inadvertence and mistake[,] erroneously entered in the
records the following: Firstly, the first name of the petitioner as
"DOROTHY" instead of "LORENA" and Secondly, the date of
birth of the petitioner as "June 24, 1968" instead of "April
24, 1968
- The petitioner has
been using the name "Lorena A. Omapas["] and her date of birth as
"April 24, 1968" for as long as she (sic) since she could remember and is known to the community in
general as such
- [Sali] then prayed
for the issuance of an order correcting her first name from "Dorothy"
to "Lorena" and the date of her birth from "June 24,1968"
to “April 24, 1968.”
- RTC moved to grant
the petition for correction.
- The Republic, through
the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), appealed the RTC Decision for lack
of jurisdiction on the part of the court a quo because the title of the
petition and the order setting the petition for hearing did not contain Sali's
aliases. The CA denied the appeal.
- In the SC, the
Republic, through the OSG, argues that if the first name is being sought to be
changed, it does not involve the correction of a simple clerical, typographical
or innocuous error such as a patently misspelled name, but a substantial change
in Sali's first name. This considering, the applicable rule is Rule 103.
ISSUE: Was Sali correct in
filing a Rule 108 proceeding instead of a Rule 103 proceeding as averred by the
OSG?
RULING: Sali's petition is
not for a change of name as contemplated under Rule 103 of the Rules but for
correction of entries under Rule 108. What she seeks is the correction of
clerical errors which were committed in the recording of her name and birth date.
This Court has held that not all alterations allowed in one's name are confined
under Rule 103 and that corrections for clerical errors may be set right under
Rule 108.
Nevertheless, at the
time Sali's petition was filed, R.A. No. 9048 was already in effect
SECTION
1. Authority to Correct Clerical or
Typographical Error and Change of First Name or Nickname. - 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
The petition for
change of first name may be allowed, among other grounds, if the new first name
has been habitually and continuously used by the petitioner and he or she has
been publicly known by that first name in the community. The local city or
municipal civil registrar or consul general has the primary jurisdiction to
entertain the petition. It is only when such petition is denied that a
petitioner may either appeal to the civil registrar general or file the
appropriate petition with the proper court.
In Onde v. Office of the Local Civil Registrar
- In Silverio v. Republic, we
held that under R.A. No. 9048, jurisdiction over applications for change of
first name is now primarily lodged with administrative officers. The intent and
effect of said law is to exclude the change of first name from the coverage of
Rules 103 (Change of Name) and 108 (Cancellation or Correction of Entries in
the Civil Registry) of the Rules of Court, until and unless an administrative
petition for change of name is first filed and subsequently denied. The remedy
and the proceedings regulating change of first name are primarily
administrative in nature, not judicial
In this
case, the petition, insofar as it prayed for the change of Sali's first name,
was not within the RTC's primary jurisdiction. It was improper because the
remedy should have been administrative, i.e.,
filing of the petition with the local civil registrar concerned. For
failure to exhaust administrative remedies, the RTC should have dismissed the
petition to correct Sali's first name.
On the
other hand, anent Sali's petition to correct her birth date from "June 24,
1968" to "April 24, 1968," R.A. No. 9048 is inapplicable. It was
only on August 15, 2012 that R.A. No. 10172 was signed into law amending R.A.
No. 9048
Considering
that Sali filed her petition in 2008, Rule 108 is the appropriate remedy in seeking
to correct her date of birth in the civil registry.
Petition to correct her birth date GRANTED; Petition for Correction of
Entry in the Certificate of Live Birth of Dorothy A. Omapas with respect to her
first name is DISMISSED WITHOUT
PREJUDICE to its filing with the local civil registrar concerned.
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