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The Claveria Decree - Why Filipinos have Spanish Surnames |
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Page 4 of 5 Once the lists of the cabecerias are finalized and approved by the reverend parish priest, a register for each of them shall be prepared so that by assembling all of these, a general register for each town will result, signed by the gobernadorcillo and approved by the parish priest, following the customary practice for the annual inventories of the provinces; three copies thereof shall be prepared, one to serve as a master copy in the parish, another to be conserved by the head of the province in the archives, and the third to be sent to the Superior Government for inclusion in the expediente of this decree and for other uses as needed. In order to obtain uniformity and to facilitate their completion, a sufficient number of registers, patterned on the attached model, shall be printed, to be paid for from the general discretionary funds of the province. At baptisms, the parish priest shall demand a sheet of paper whereon, in addition to the name to be given to the one to be baptized, the names and surnames of his father and mother shall be written, except as prescribed in article 6. The same shall be done at marriages, in which case not only the names and surnames of the couple to be married, but also those of their parents, shall be entered. In the margin of sacramental certificates as well as in all public manuscripts or documents that may be issued by either the provincial notaries or the town judges, the surnames of the interested parties to whom the documents refer shall be written in clear and legible writing; all such documents issued under names other than those which had been assigned to these parties, as certified by the master registers or their baptismal certificates, shall be null and void. Neither the heads of provinces, nor parish priests, nor gobernadorcillos shall approve applications or documents in which the interested parties do not express their names and surnames; this rule shall be observed in the Capital [Manila], in municipal and provincial courts, by authorities, military chiefs of the navy, and treasury, and any other officials before whom the natives may appear or present themselves. Any individual who, after being inscribed in the new register, changes his name or surname shall be punished in accordance with the malice and circumstances of the case. The penalty shall be no less than eight days in jail, redeemable by a three-peso fine, and this minimum penalty shall be imposed only in the case of least malice, that is, those caused by negligence or inattention.
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