Short answer. Any person with a direct and personal interest in the correction may file the verified petition in person. RA 9048 lets that person go to the local civil registry office where the record is kept, or — if they have moved — where they now reside, and Filipinos abroad may file with the nearest Philippine Consulate.
What the law says
Any person having direct and personal interest in the correction of a clerical or typographical error in an entry and/or change of first name or nickname in the civil register may file, in person, a verified petition with the local civil registry office of the city or municipality where the record being sought to be corrected or changed is kept.
RA 9048, Section 3 — Who May File And Where. Read the full provision →
Who qualifies to file
Section 3 of RA 9048 limits filing to a person with a direct and personal interest in the correction. That usually means the owner of the record — the person whose birth, marriage, or death certificate carries the error — but it also reaches those whose own rights depend on the entry, such as a spouse, a child, a parent, or a guardian, depending on the correction sought. The requirement screens out strangers and busybodies: you cannot petition to alter someone else's civil record simply because you noticed a mistake. The interest must be real and your own.
It must be verified, in person
The petition must be verified — sworn to under oath — and filed in person. The in-person rule is deliberate: because these corrections happen outside a courtroom, the registrar meets the petitioner directly, which guards against fraud and impersonation in changing public records. The petition is filed with the local civil registry office of the city or municipality where the record being corrected is kept, since that office holds the original document the correction will annotate.
Filing when you have moved or gone abroad
RA 9048 accommodates people who no longer live where the record sits. If the petitioner has migrated elsewhere in the country and travelling back would be impractical in terms of expense, time, and effort, the petition may be filed in person with the local civil registrar of the place where the petitioner now resides; the two registrars then coordinate. Filipinos residing or domiciled abroad may file, in person, with the nearest Philippine Consulate. This keeps the process reachable without forcing a costly trip home.
The limits on who and how often
This provision decides who may file and where; it does not enlarge what may be corrected — that stays confined to clerical or typographical errors and a change of first name or nickname. It also does not let anyone file repeatedly: the remedy for a first-name change or clerical correction may generally be availed of only once, so the petition should be complete and accurate the first time. If the correction you need is substantial — touching status, filiation, or nationality — the administrative route is closed and a court petition, with its own standing rules, is required.