A total of 408 children from 39 barangays of Bayambang showed up with their parents at the Municipal Covered Court on Friday, November 18, 2016, to receive the birth certificates granted to them for free as part of Operation Birthright, a collaboration project between the Local Civil Registrar’s Office (LCRO) and the Rotary Club of Bayambang and Cubao.

Operation Birthright was aimed at granting free registration of birth certificates for young residents (18 years old or younger) of Bayambang whose parents, for one reason or another, have failed to acquire a Certificate of Live Birth for them.

LCRO head Ismael Malicdem Jr. welcomed everyone by giving the opening remarks.

Members of the Rotary Club of Bayambang led by their President, Dr. Leticia Ursua, came out in full force. They were joined by their fellow Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Cubao, Quezon City, Business Center, spearheaded by its past President Ramon Matabang and including actress Tanya Gomez.

Matabang said the idea for the project came out of the fact that a birth certificate gives a person “a right to a name, identity and nationality.”

In his speech, Mayor Cezar T. Quiambao underscored the importance of birth certificate in a person’s life, pointing out the many instances in which it is indispensable: baptism, education, employment, marriage, driver’s license, travel abroad, etc. “Having no birth certificate is like living without a proof of our existence,” he said in Filipino.

Mayor Quiambao then lauded the effort of Rotary Club of Cubao and Bayambang, adding that “this is a good example of good public service which should be emulated by us, public servants.”

Quiambao vowed that the LGU and the Rotary Club of Cubao and Bayambang will continue the effort to provide this kind of public service every year.

Aside from birth certificates, the members of the Rotary Club also distributed over 400 imported shoes to the registrants.

(Bayambang PIO/Media Affairs)