The Department of Social Welfare and Development in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DSWD-ARMM) held a four-town free mobile birth registration drive over the weekend to consolidate relevant statistics for the region’s policy planning.

About 5,000 adults and children availed of the mobile registration drive.

The registration drive was conducted in the towns of Talayan, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Shariff Aguak and Datu Blah, Sinsuat, five adjoining towns in Maguindanao, according to project head Judy Roquero.

The province has more than 800,000 inhabitants living in 36 municipalities.

Tapal Uma, regional free birth registration coordinator, cited that more than 30 percent of the population of Maguindanao does not have certificates of live birth.

Next week, the mobile registration team will visit five more towns and hope to complete at least 10 towns until Christmas.

Many of the unregistered individuals live in far-flung communities and away from health centers.

The youngest registrant was one-month old while the oldest who had availed of the free birth registration was a 90-year old woman, according to social welfare officials.