A 101-year-old woman from Negros Occidental’s Kabankalan City has finally obtained a birth certificate in official security paper (SECPA) through the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) Birth Registration Assistance Program (PBRAP) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Enriquita Quillano Olitan, who was born on September 5, 1921, became the province’s oldest PBRAP beneficiary when she received her birth document at her residence in the remote Barangay Tampalon’s Purok Narra 1 on July 13.

The centenarian was feted in a simple ceremony, where city civil registrar Monalisa Tabujara and PBRAP agent Jesirie Marie Gedorio awarded her a birth certificate in the official SECPA.

Edwin Guiking, PBRAP focal person and registration officer of PSA-Negros Occidental, said yesterday that individuals who have no birth registration can process the issuance of their birth certificate for free under the assistance program.

“Based on the records provided by the barangay, she [Olitan] is one of the residents who still doesn’t have a birth certificate, that’s why it was processed. Considering that she is already a centenarian yet she still doesn’t have a birth document,” Guiking told the Philippine News Agency.

Gedorio and the team from City Civil Registry Office had to walk for an hour from the area their service vehicle could reach to be able to deliver Olitan’s birth certificate.

They were joined by the barangay officials along with City Social Welfare and Development Office head Cyril Ramos and Mayor’s Office Executive Assistant Pastor John Antolo, who brought a wheelchair for the centenarian.

The PBRAP, being implemented by the PSA in collaboration with the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the local government units, aims to increase civil registration, especially in marginalized communities such as the Indigenous Peoples, Muslim Filipinos and the poorest sector to ensure that all births of Filipinos are registered in the Local Civil Registry Offices. (PNA)