Birth Certificate Correction Gone Wrong

Many people who were born during the time when there was only pen and typewriter to jot our records have had problems with their identities from their government documents, such as the birth certificate. This ranges from mis-spelled entries to incorrectly written entries (such as gender - a born baby boy was identified on the document as a female, or vice versa), and etc.

You see, our ancestors mostly came from other nationalities as a result of Colonial occupations in our Country way back few hundred years ago. So most of the Filipinos still carry their Spanish origins of family names. But due to our naturally hard-tongue pronunciations (or is it just me?), how we pronounce some "foreign" words may not be spelled correctly, even if we spell the word letter-by-letter. I could even remember some of my cousins way back in our province spelled "apple" letter-by-letter as something like: "eh na may bontot, pe, pe, el, eh na pa-ekot"; for a "cat", it was voice-spelled as "se na paekot, eh na may bontot, te"; for the "dog", it was spelled as "de, oh, dzi na walang toldok"! It all makes sense though, in any way! Now could you follow this kind of spelling quiz bee?

Image from Craigs' English

With this dilemma, our own clan may have been one of the great victims of this lingual catastrophe. Most of us have differing spelling of family names, and until now, we don't even know who's family name's spelling is correct, and who's spelling will be followed. For me, the spelling that I have been used to is the most beautifully spelled family name, for another relative, their own spelling is the most alluring, for my Cousin, his spelling is the most attractive, and to another Uncle, the sound of how his family name is pronounced and spelled is the most "bagay" of all.

During my stay in Masbate way back 1991 - 1994, I remember seeing a land title from one of our great-great grandfather bearing a family name of "Bedansaga". Another document from the same generation of relatives bore a family name of "Vedarozaga". Then different family name spellings sprouted on to the next generations such as the "Vedarosaga" and "Vidarozaga". So originally, there were only four (4) variations of our family name.

Then just a few weeks ago, it seems that it has become more clear as to where and how these mis-haps came about.

Last year (Oct, 2010), I was finally able to apply for a passport (thanks to a good friend who accompanied me). But as expected, due to contradicting spelling of my family name in my birth certificate against to all my other documents, the passport issuance was put on hold, and I was advised to have those corrected from the Municipal Civil Registry Office (MCRO) of Masbate. Yes, that's the province where my humanity was registered.

So in short, with all the documents prepared and submitted for the petition of correction of entry from my Birth Certificate, I was confident that soon, within 3 months in time, me and my birth certificate will be fused into one after almost 30 years of "denying each other". So when I received the documents from MCRO last week (May 2, 2011), I knew I could already proceed to DFA to finally have my long-overdue passport. But when I get to read all the documents... I'll let you guess how I felt during that time with these findings:

Action Taken by CRG (Verification page) – Verified family name entry became: "V_darozaga"
Civil Registration Certificate – Corrected family name on the annotation: "Verarozaga"
Decision on Petition – Corrected family name as indicated on the remarks: "Vedarozaraga"

Image from TeacherDan

Although our whole family's been used to hearing and reading different variations of our family name, this one became so big deal to me since it is a record of our legal document. Much worst is that these mistakes have become "legal" in the sense that the mistakes all originated from the Government office who keeps our records. The documents were even verified and signed by the Municipal Registrar. How was the verification done? That I don't know!

Now to all my relatives out there, if ever one of us get to meet someone bearing these new spelling of family name, don't be surprised anymore!

Oh, come to think of it, guess I can marry three other Women in a legal way without annulling my previous marriage! LOL!