FACTS:

The petitioner, Ma. Lourdes Eleosida, filed a petition before the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City seeking to correct the entries in the birth certificate of her son, Charles Christian. The birth certificate shows that the child's full name is Charles Christian Eleosida Borbon and that he was born on May 24, 1992 to Ma. Lourdes Barrientos Eleosida and Carlos Villena Borbon. It also indicates that the child's parents were married on January 10, 1985 in Batangas City.

However, petitioner alleged that she gave birth to her son out of wedlock and that she and the boy's father were never married. She requested to change the surname "Borbon" to "Eleosida," leave the date of the parents' wedding blank, and change the informant's name from "Ma. Lourdes E. Borbon" to "Ma. Lourdes B. Eleosida." The petition impleaded the Local Registrar of Quezon City and Carlos Villena Borbon as respondents.

The trial court issued a notice of hearing, setting the petition for hearing on June 26, 1997. The court also ordered the publication of the notice once a week for three consecutive weeks. However, no opposition was filed, and the trial court allowed the petitioner to present compliance with the jurisdictional requirements and evidence on July 23, 1997.

On August 25, 1997, the trial court dismissed the petition for lack of merit, ruling that the changes desired by the petitioner would ultimately affect the civil status of Charles Christian. The court considered the action improper and stated that the matters desired to be changed cannot be considered as falling under clerical errors but rather as changes that would establish the child's civil status as illegitimate.

ISSUES:

1. Whether the trial court erred in dismissing the petition to correct the entries in the birth certificate of Charles Christian.

2. Whether the changes desired by the petitioner would affect the civil status of Charles Christian.

RULING:

1. The trial court did not err in dismissing the petition. Changes or corrections in the birth certificate can only be made for clerical errors of a harmless and innocuous nature and not those that affect the civil status of the person involved. In this case, the changes desired by the petitioner, such as substituting her maiden name for the child's surname and deleting the information about the parents' marriage, would ultimately affect the civil status of Charles Christian as illegitimate.

PRINCIPLES:

• Changes or corrections in a birth certificate can only be made for clerical errors of a harmless and innocuous nature and not those that affect the civil status of the person involved.

• Changes that affect the civil status of a person require proper court proceedings and cannot be done through the correction of birth certificate entries alone.