For the past many decades, most Muslim parents, largely due to ignorance, never bothered to register the births of their children with local Civil Registrar’s Office (CRO). Consequently, their undocumented sons and daughters have caused thousands of grown-up children of various Muslim sub-tribes – Tausug, Badjao, Maranao, Yakan, Maguindanaon, and Samal – to face various personal, educational, and
social problems. But recently, this issue has become the major concern of Jabu-Jabu, Inc., a local non-government organization (NGO) that primarily works for the securing of government baptismal certificates – “Katarangan sin Paggunting” in the Tausug dialect – of locally undocumented children belonging to several Muslim sub-tribes in this city and other areas of Western Mindanao – or the Zamboanga Peninsula – and the island provinces of Sulu, Basilan, and Tawi-Tawi. Jabu-Jabu (The Calling) was founded by its president Jaafar Kimpa who started the “Katarangan” early last year after he found out that most Badjao and Tausug youngsters were growing old without the benefit of their births being registered with the appropriate government office. Public elementary and secondary schools would refuse to enroll such undocumented children, or, if they did, the youngsters would return in the next school year using another name thus posing a problem to their school records. Jabu-Jabu later made a tie-up with the local Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) research department, dxAS of Far East Broadcasting Corporation (FEBC), and the city government’s CRO to use the “Katarangan” as secondary document as basis for the eventual issuance of standard official birth certificate to the as-yet “colorum Muslim children and youths.”
As of the end of February, the Jabu-Jabu has released over 2,000 “Paggunting” to as many undocumented Muslim children living in 17 city coastal villages, even as more Muslim parents have continued to show interest in initially registering the births of their children through the NGO. Jabu-Jabu released, during an appropriate ceremony, close to 50 individual “baptismal certificates” to as many unregistered Badjao children in Barangay Arena Blanco to the delight of their parents. WMSU research department chief Chona Sarmiento explained to the Badjao parents during the occasion that copies of the “Paggunting” would be submitted to the CRO for the latter’s use in preparing the children’s official birth certificates. The certificates will help their children become better Muslims “as they will have better opportunity to get an education that will make them learn the peaceful teachings of Islam and ultimately get employed.”
