Barretto vs Local Civil registrar 74 SCRA 257 Facts: Born of Faustino Barretto and King Lian (both natives

s of Amoy, China) but was recorded allegedly in the name of Rosario Barretto (as per Register No. 1167(f44) in the record of births of the civil register of Manila) allegedly a female child Rosario was born on that 29th of june 1944 According to the Book No. IV, Folio 83 of the record of baptisms of the Parroquia de Chinos in Manila, a boy by the name of domingo sy barrette was baptized on 21st of may 1950 of the aforementioned parents Registered as an alien in BID, also issued a native-born certificate of residence (29th june 1958) Domingo Barreto alleges to have only known the mistake in his birth certificate upon filing for an ML He therefore sought to have the alleged erroneous entries be corrected (regarding his name and sex) Filed two pets (due to dismissal of the 1st, with the 2nd being limited to a correction of sex) TC granted but OSG appealed Issue: WON the alleged error is merely clerical in nature such that change therein could easily be dispensed Held: No. it was not a clerical error. If the name in the record of birth were Domingo Barretto and his sex was indicated therein as female, it might be argued that the error would be clerical. But that is not the fact in this case. The situation is more complicated. A person named Domingo Barretto claims that he is Rosario Barreto and that the word "female" in the latter's birth record is a mistake. In this case, there is a need to ascertain as to WON Rosario and Domingo are one and the same person. TC decision is therefore set aside