Negros Oriental ranked 2nd in Central Visayas for the most number of registered births with 16.9 percent of the total live births registered in the region.
The Province logged a total number of registered live births of 19,832 in 2023, which is lower by 3.71 percent from 2022.
This translates to 54 babies born daily in the Province, which is composed of 10,272 males and 9,560 females.
During a recent meeting of the Provincial Inter-Agency Committee on Civil Registration & Vital Statistics, Philippine Statistics Authority Provincial Director Ariel Fortuito noted that due to the inaccessibility of lying-in clinics in most far-flung barangays or mountainous areas, parents failed to register their babies, while others were unaware of their duty to register them.
It was also found during the census that some people claimed not to have birth certificates, which is one of the requirements to be a beneficiary of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Department of Social Welfare & Development.
“Busa amo jud silang gipangita through the Local Civil Registrars. They have been going around the barangays doing the mobile registration, informing the barangay officials to help us identify these people so that they will be registered,” said Fortuito.
Based on the PSA’s database, it was verified that out of 38,697 live births, some 34,659 have not registered with the PSA, and are now subject for late registration.
“We also discovered that there are 17,763 individuals who claimed they have not been registered, only to find out they were registered base on the database,” Fortuito added.
PSA is now focusing on those who have not registered, which is tantamount to depriving them of their right to have a name and a nationality.
In the same report, adolescent mothers, particularly those under 15 years old, recorded the highest proportion of non-marital births, with 96.5 percent of their total births classified as non-marital.
This was followed by aged 15-19 years at 91.1 percent and mothers aged 20-24 years at 78.3 percent.
Meanwhile, a total of 7,556 couples were married in 2023, which translated to an average of 20 weddings per day.
On the other hand, a total of 10,421 deaths were registered in the Province, which translated to 28 deaths daily or one in every hour on the average in 2023. (JCT/PIA-7 NegOr)
