BAGUIO CITY (PIA) - - The City Civil Registry Office registered 6,844 live births in 2022, an increase of 938 or 15.88 percent compared to 2021.
Of the total registered live births 456 were born to mothers aged 19 years old and below with the youngest mother registered at 12 years old.
Of the recorded live births in Baguio City last year, 3,404 were born out of wedlock, an increase of 12.52 percent compared to the 3,025 illegitimate children registered in 2021.
In terms of marriage, Baguio remains to be a wedding capital with 1,907 marriage registration recorded in 2022, an increase of 34.67 percent compared to the 1,416 marriages registered in 2021.
Leah Deborah Figueroa of the Local Civil Registry Office reported said data during a recent Kapihan Media Forum here, in observance of Baguio’s Marriage Week.
The forum primarily focused on the importance of marriage as a foundation of building a strong family, the basic unit of a strong community or society.
Councilor Elmer Datuin, City Council Committee on Social Services, Women and Urban Poor, said the celebration of Marriage Week every February 7-14 is an institutionalized annual event in Baguio City by virtue of Ordinance No. 10 Series of 2017 that he authored.
tt coincides with the Valentine’s Day celebration as we like to encourage partners or loving couples to get married and build a strong family. If we have strong families, we will have strong communities, Datuin said.
The Marriage Week celebration was highlighted by the “Love, Courtship and Marriage Enrichment seminar” for students, single police personnel and persons deprived of liberty, and renewal of vows of couples who are married for 25 years or more.
Joining the forum are City Social Welfare and Development Officer Liza Bulayungan, OIC City Health Officer Dr. Celiaflor Brillantes, Reverends Rowena Orajay and Felicisimo Vestidas of UPLIFE Movement and Roy Basatan of the Bureau of Jail and Penology Baguio Female Dorm. (JDP/CCD-PIA CAR)
