Short answer. Yes. Republic Act 9048 requires that the petition shall be in the form of an affidavit, subscribed and sworn to before any person authorized by the law to administer oaths. A change-of-first-name petition is not an informal letter or a plain form; it must be a sworn statement made under oath.
What the law says
The petition shall be in the form of an affidavit, subscribed and sworn to before any person authorized by the law to administer oaths.
RA 9048, Section 5 — Form Contents And Publication. Read the full provision →
The petition must be a sworn affidavit
Republic Act 9048 is specific about the form of the petition: the petition shall be in the form of an affidavit, subscribed and sworn to before any person authorized by the law to administer oaths. That means you do not simply write a request; you execute an affidavit, a written statement you swear to as true before an officer authorized to administer oaths, such as a notary public. Swearing to it matters, because a false statement in a sworn document carries the risk of perjury. The oath is what makes the petition a formal, verifiable claim rather than an unaccountable assertion.
What the affidavit must contain
The same section tells you what to put in the affidavit. It must set forth the facts necessary to establish the merits of the petition and show that you are competent to testify to the matters stated, in other words that the facts are within your own knowledge. You must state the particular entry sought to be corrected or the change sought to be made. So the affidavit is not a bare wish to change your name; it is a factual account explaining the grounds, sworn to by someone in a position to know them. Vague or conclusory affidavits invite rejection by the registrar.
The affidavit is only part of the package
The sworn affidavit is the core of the petition, but the law requires more to go with it. It must be supported by a certified copy of the record and at least two public or private documents showing the correct entry. For a change of first name specifically, the petition must additionally be published in a newspaper for two consecutive weeks and be accompanied by a certification from law-enforcement agencies that you have no pending case or criminal record. The affidavit form is the vehicle; these supporting requirements are what give the registrar enough to act on.
Why the sworn form is taken seriously
The insistence on an affidavit reflects that a name change touches identity and the public interest, so the person seeking it must stand behind the claim under oath. Because the process is administrative and can be availed of only once, a carelessly prepared or inaccurate affidavit is costly; it can lead to denial, and errors sworn to can have their own consequences. The safest course is to make sure the affidavit states the true grounds accurately and completely, is properly notarized, and is filed with all the supporting papers.
A later law expanded this process
This administrative correction process comes from Republic Act No. 9048. In 2012, Republic Act No. 10172 amended Republic Act No. 9048 to add two more errors — a wrong day or month of birth, and a wrong entry of sex — to this same civil-registrar route, without a court order. The procedure and documents above still apply; Republic Act No. 10172 widened what can be fixed, not how it works.