Best Posts in Thread: The Middle Name

Typically, your filipino bureaucrats have gotten mixed up about what they inherited from their colonizers. First of all, "middle name" is an English-language label. The Spanish-style uses two family names. And secondly, the first family name, or "middle name" is typically the father's first surname (apellido paterno); contrary to what your were told, the mother's first surname (apellido materno) comes second, with "and" (Sp. y) between them. Or maybe the filipinos are trying to confuse their former occupiers.

 

Good evening, fellow forum members. Knowing many of you have families in the Philippines, I thought I'd cast a line and fish here for some answers to a recent odd occurrence. I went to the Philippines Embassy here in Kuwait to register my daughter's birth abroad.

I recently registered her birth aboard at the US Embassy and applied for her US passport, but this did little to prepare me for my encounter at the Philippines embassy. They wanted 4 copies of everything, had a pre filled out form we had to use with "Filipino" filled out as the father's nationality, and we had to do it outside the embassy, seated in a plastic chair situated at a fold up card table. This seemed pretty normal for how the government works from prior experience. The interesting part came after the forms were reviewed for correctness.

For our daughter's middle name, we put Gabrielle, as that is the name we gave her, which is on her Kuwait Birth Certificate, Kuwait Civil ID, US CRBA (Consular Report of Birth Aboard), and US passport. We were told that was not her middle name, that it needed to be her mother's maiden name. Initially, when pressed, the lady involved said it was tradition. After pointing out how it was documented on 4 official documents, she said, "It is the law. Her name has to be her mother's maiden name."

After telling her we wouldn't be registering her with a name different from her other official documents, she said the Vice Consul would not sign it because it wasn't in accordance with the law. I asked to speak to the Vice Consul.

The lady led me upstairs and had me sit in a chair around the corner from the Vice Consul's office and went inside. The Vice Consul proceeded to scream at her in English that it was the law and that it didn't matter what I thought. He told her he didn't want to speak to me and would have me thrown from the embassy if I didn't like it.

At this point I stood up and looked into his office to see if this was a charade for Tik Tok and it wasn't. He was visibly upset without having exchanged any conversation with me. I asked him what law and was told he didn't have to show me the law, that there was no argument. I told him I agreed there was no argument. He then proceeded to review my documents.

He told the lady that was there he would sign them as the staff had prepared them and I told him, "Oh no sir, no need at all. I felt I was doing the right thing to report her birth here, but clearly I was mistaken." He then told me it was the law again and that I could "google it" if I wanted to. I asked him what law I should be looking for any he said the Civil Code of the Philippines or some law from 1987.

We left the embassy without reporting my daughter's birth abroad and I did my research. As it turns out, it is NOT the law. I've provided links to the relevant laws below. Have any of you ever encountered this and how did you resolve it? From what I've heard, many people leave the embassy with their kids having new names based on being told it was the law.

https://www.chanrobles.com/executiveorderno209.htm
https://www.chanrobles.com/civilcodeofthephilippinesfulltext.html