Stupid Filipino Laws
This will be a post in progress. I will add more as I think of them.
1. The middle name of a child born in The Philippines must be the maiden name of the mother.  As a result of this law I was not allowed to name my recently born son “Horace O’Donal Turner, III” as I wanted. Instead his first name is “Horace O’Donal III”, his middle name is “Valles”, and his last name is “Turner”, so his real name is “Horace O’Donal III Valles Turner”. I have nothing against the name “Valles” and I am so very honored to have married into that family words cannot convey my thoughts and feelings on that matter. However, to be a “III”, to me, the names must be the same as the predecessors, if the name is not identical then it’s not the same.
2. A “student driver’s permit” requires that the bearer when riding a motorcycle be accompanied by a licensed passenger. In Florida, the bearer of a “learner’s driver’s license” is NOT allowed to carry a passenger on a motorcycle. The logic in The Philippines is that the passenger is there to advise the driver. The logic is Florida is that a motorcycle is such a dangerous vehicle that someone who is just learning to drive one does not have the skills necessary to carry and keep safe a passenger. I think it is stupid to require a new and learning driver to carry a passenger and jeopardize a 2nd life. A car is different. I’m just talking about motorcycles here.
I’ll add more stupid Philippine laws as think of them. Please feel free to add any you can think of.
February 7th, 2008 at 21:55
I wonder if you can get around that name requirement by claiming your baby is an American citizen. My family has its own naming convention for boys that this law would interfere with.
When I have a child, perhaps I’ll fly my wife to Bangkok or even as far as America so that we can name the baby whatever we want.
February 8th, 2008 at 04:23
hahaha. every country has its own stupid laws and philippines is just one of them. here’s one in the US.
in Alabama:
It is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while operating a vehicle.
more stupid laws here: http://www.eldar.org/~ben/funny/html/180.html
February 8th, 2008 at 04:27
by the way, when you filled up your sons birth certificate, you should have written Horace O’Donal Turner, III as hes name. there’s no law that ive known of here in the philippines that requires to put you in the surname of the mother as its middle name. too bad, its already done.
February 8th, 2008 at 19:27
We did complete the birth certificate as you suggested as “Horace O’Donal Turner, III”, the hospital refused to process it and said we would have to process it ourselves as it contravened Filipino Family Law. So, we tried to process it ourselves, and I sent my attorney to visit the Registrar at City Hall (who is actually an employee of the national government). He said that he could send it off that way, but that it would never be approved because of the law. The birth certificate registration document has a sidebar, to create checks that the law is being followed in naming convention.
February 8th, 2008 at 22:36
I’m a single mom and Philippine laws don’t allow illegitimate children to have middle names. When my son started going to school I had to explain to the registrar, to the finance office, and to the teacher that my son doesn’t have a middle name and he can’t use mine either. It’s a lot of trouble because those who don’t know would insist on putting my middle name on my son’s records, so I always end up furnishing them a copy of his birth certificate.
February 9th, 2008 at 00:50
Hmm… I’m definitely going to consider having my children born outside of the PI then. I don’t want any government deciding what my child’s name is going to be.
(The reason I’m so steadfastly against it is because my family always uses the mother’s father’s name as the middle name, while the first name has always been the same. (No… my first name is not legally “Jil”.) For my son, it will be his turn to go by his middle name… which the Philippine government claims it is going to choose for me. No way.)
February 20th, 2008 at 07:47
Then again, this is the Phils….the only country I’ve ever been in where a person can go an entire life by a name like Jenny when their real name is something totally different like Gloria. No lie – there is a girl whose first name is legally Dia, but somehow she managed to get a nickname of Nadia which is longer than the real name. Even has that on a few peices of ID. My all time favorite is a girl that has gone by Ivy her entire life but the real name is Marianne…not even close!
But, nope, I didn’t know there were child-naming laws here.
November 10th, 2008 at 18:46
The name thing is also a problem for adoptions. After 3 years we gave up trying to adopt an illegitamit (blood relative) girl child. Baptismal records have a name not allowed, so official birth certificate was rejected. Can’t change baptismal birth record, and can’t use that record to get official gov. birth certificate. Simply, she dose not exist and can’t be adopted, or get a passport/visa to bring her to USA to work it out under different laws. A common problem in rural areas with NPA marrages, not legal, and all children are illegitamit, or don’t exist officially.
January 13th, 2010 at 07:24
Heres another stupid law, It is Illegal to play with any kind of toy gun outdoors. lol
May 7th, 2010 at 12:18
I agree, my wife just informed me of this silly law. I find it to be outrageous that a government of any sort thinks they have the right to name your children for you. I intend to have the baby elsewhere when the time comes. It is just sad that we will have the extra expense to pay just to have the freedom to name our child. Silly Silly Law!
June 25th, 2010 at 22:26
in the philippnes a person can be in a car or on a motorcycle, have no license, no registration,be drunk,drive on the wrong side of the road, or come off a side road, runs into you and if he gets killed, you will go to jail, and be charged with homicide. you stay there unless you pay the family. you also have to pay for the damages he did to your car.same goes for someone who runs out in front or decides to commit suicide.if you survive an accident you will always be arrested.
in a country where convicted felons run for president innocent people are put in jail
‘
t off the family, you will lose your license and have to pay for your own damages to your car. same thing happens if a person suddenly runs out in front or decides to commit suicide, you go to jail
June 30th, 2010 at 11:29
Do you mean to tell me that in the U.S. people can just give their children any name they’d like? Even Last names? Thats so cool, I’ll name my first born Annakin Skywalker.
July 17th, 2010 at 23:53
Stupid or not I do not mind having my mother’s maiden last name as my middle name. Because I feel its part of my identity. I think there maybe a purpose why that law was created. One is, since the child was created by two people, shouldn’t the name of the mother be included in the chid’s name? What other better purpose than that? Another is, this law, must be only a copy of how the Spanish people name their children, which I believe included the mother’s maiden last name. This way, the child is easier to identify by who the parents are and also for genealogical purposes would be a lot easier to trace the child” family tree.
April 22nd, 2011 at 09:20
I have a son born in Manila and although he is an American citizen he has his mother’s maiden name as one of his four names. If I had been wealthy I would have taken the mother anyplace but The Philippines so I could have named my son what I wanted, not what the government demands. When he eventually goes to the US for school all his classmates will say, “what the hell kind of middle name is Sansan anyway?”
That middle name crap cost me no end of grief when I got married (to a different woman) and was getting my married, permanent residency. They demanded I put my mother’s maiden name as my middle name on all the documents. I had to argue that to do so is fraud and a criminal offense because that is not my name. Eventually I started telling people I was an orphan & did not know my mother’s name.
August 28th, 2011 at 11:59
regarding the middle name issue, in the US a person has the following : first name, middle name, last name; in the Philippines we have: Given(First) name, middle name, family name. We interpret the term ‘middle name’ differently and as I have read somewhere other countries also have their own interpretations for the term. A child here could be named John Carl Sanchez Gomez and he will always write ‘John Carl’ when forms in the Philippines ask for a ‘first name’ and i think about 99% of Filipinos always think of ‘middle name’ as the mum’s last name and its hard for them to think otherwise. Anyway your son doesn’t could later just write V. instead of Valles although he will be required to spell it out in some forms. This law is not stupid although it is an annoyance to expats and a huge difference in naming conventions. btw if you had your way locals would assume his mum to be a foreigner because of the O’Donal then when they see she’s filipina they would then assume her dad must be the O’Donal foreigner hehe. we get confused with foreign naming conventions too you know.
April 4th, 2012 at 23:28
before reading the comments and not knowing there was a law forcing parents to use the mother’s maiden last name as the child’s middle name, i always thought it was a convention to track the descent of the child.
having read about this law i still believe the purpose is to track descent of the child, identifying to which families the child belongs to.
being not familiar with laws regarding single parent children (i believe illegitimate is archaic and nonsensical), i found yen’s comment disconcerting, as such a practice by schools and other agencies will make life difficult. societal BS.
April 25th, 2012 at 23:03
This custom is causing me no end of grief. As far as I can tell, it’s not even a law. I was born in the States so I was named as my parents pleased, and I’m actually pretty happy with my name as it is. I had no problems with my name when I transferred to school here, but since I’ve had to apply for government IDs and clearances, I’ve had to contend with low-level government officials who will NOT hear me out when I say that my mother’s maiden name is NOT part of my name, and that my surname IS, in fact, hyphenated even if I’m not married, and that any changes they choose to make for me – oh yes, they feel that they’re entitled to do this: my BIR records have a completely different surname listed despite any and all protests on my part – would actually make their records fraudulent.
It’s no end of frustrating, and it’s pointless to boot. I love this country, but sometimes the things they do here make me want to hie on back to the States.