G.R. No. 216425 - ANACLETO BALLAHO ALANIS III, VS. COURT OF APPEALS, CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, AND HON. GREGORIO V. DE LA PEÑA III, PRESIDING JUDGE, BR. 12, REGIONAL TRIAL COURT OF ZAMBOANGA CITY, DECISION - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

accordingly used the name Abdulhamid Ballaho in all his records and is known to the community as such person and not Anacleto Ballaho Alanis III, his registered full name is his Certificate of Live Birth, this Court believes that the very change of name sought by the petitioner in this petition would even create more confusion since if so granted by this Court, such change sought after could trigger much deeper inquiries regarding her parentage and/or paternity, bearing in mind that he is the legitimate eldest child of the spouses Mario Alanis y Cimafranca and Jarmila Imelda Ballaho y Al-Raschid[.] [17] Thus, the trial court concluded that, instead of seeking to change his name in his birth certificate, petitioner should have had the other private and public records corrected to conform to his true and correct name: Time and again, this Court has consistently ruled that, in similar circumstances, the proper remedy for the petitioner is to instead cause the proper correction of his private and public records to conform to his true and correct first name and surname, which in this case is Anacleto Ballaho Alanis, III and not to change his said official, true and correct name as appearing in his Certificate of Live Birth simply because either he erroneously and inadvertently or even purposely or deliberately used an incorrect first name and surname in his private and public records. [18] The dispositive portion of the Order reads: WHEREFORE, in view of the foregoing, and finding no legal, proper, justified and reasonable grounds to allow the change of name of the herein petitioner from Anacleto Ballaho Alanis III as appearing in his Certificate of Live Birth to Abdulhamid Ballaho as prayed for by the petitioner in his petition dated February 1, 2007 the above-entitled petition is hereby DENIED and ordered DISMISSED for lack of merit. No cost. SO ORDERED.