Ulog No. 31: "My Maiden Last Name is now my Middle Name"

On Thursday afternoon, I received a call from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs informing me that they scheduled me for the Australian citizenship test and interview on 15th of August. After exactly 12 months since I applied for citizenship, I finally got a response from the Foreign Affairs office.

It was a Filipino woman that I talked to over the phone. She was very helpful and accommodating, as I had a few questions to ask her, but she patiently answered in great detail. I could tell from her voice that she is a genuine person and someone who is always willing to extend her help, especially to her fellow "kababayan" (countrymen).

She informed me that there had been inconsistencies with the documents that I submitted because my Australian driver's license shows a different middle name, whilst my Philippine passport and the rest of the documents corresponded with one another. She instructed me to request any person from Service SA to change my name on the driver's license. I told her that when I applied for a learner's permit, I explained to the person that assisted me that my actual middle name was not part of my given name, hence, it was not really a middle name as such, like how Australians would have their middle names.

Under the Philippine regulations...

... children who are legitimate, legitimated, and/or acknowledged by both parents shall use the surname of their father. On the other hand, illegitimate children shall bear the surname of the mother. This is according to the Republic Act 386 of the Civil Code of the Philippines, Articles 364 and 366. If the children are recognised by only one of the parents, they shall use the surname of the recognising parent (Article 366).

In addition, Article 174 of the Family Code of the Philippines states that legitimate children shall have the right to bear the surnames of both the father and the mother which conforms with the provisions of the Civil Code.

For any Filipino, his or her middle name is never counted as his or her given name.

For example, a person can have more than one given name, e.g. Maria Isabella Santos Cruz. In this example, Maria Isabella are both given names, Santos is the middle name, and Cruz is the surname. Her siblings will also have Santos as their middle name. Now, this will change for Maria Isabella once she gets married. What will happen is that she will drop her middle name and use her maiden last name as her new middle name and her husband's last name will be her new surname. For example, her husband's name is John Doe. Her name becomes Maria Isabella Cruz Doe. (This only applies to Filipino women. Filipino men retain their complete name after marriage, as with most, if not all, cultures.)

In some cases where illegitimate children bear the last name of their mother, they may have no middle name at all. Because if they have the same middle name as their mother, then it would appear as though they were siblings. Some Filipinos make this mistake when they register the birth of their children as they are not informed of what this discrepancy entails pertaining to legal documents.

For illegitimate children, who are females, who don't have middle names and bear their mother's surname as the last name, and who will marry someday, they will have their maiden last name as the middle name and adopt their husband's last name as their new surname (if they choose to).

Anyway, in my case, since I am a legitimate child, I use my mother's maiden last name as my middle name and my father's last name as my surname, which is shown on my birth certificate. Then after getting married, upon deciding to use the surname of my husband, my maiden middle name is automatically dropped and is replaced with my maiden last name (Article 370).

Like I said, all my documents and records are harmonised, except for my driver's license. I know that it would have been easier if I just totally drop my middle name, and have just my first name (given name) and my married name (last name). But since, I am a Filipino citizen, I need to abide by the Philippines regulations on surnames. I hold a Philippine passport, which shows my previous last name as my middle name. I used this form of identification when I had to renew my Philippine Professional Teacher's License. Because of that, when I applied for teacher's registration from the South Australian Teachers' Registration Board, I used the name that which shows on my passport.

Today, I went to Service SA, hoping that the person who previously assisted me four or five years ago would not be the same person to serve me. And it wasn't! Thank God! Because I can still clearly remember how that person was not really helpful and she was abrupt with me. She did not even try to listen to what I had to say. Instead, she quickly dismissed me saying that

"You're in Australia, you need to follow our rules and regulations."

I even wrote a letter and submitted a signed statutory declaration explaining the importance of my choice to use my maiden last name as my new middle name, since at the time of application of the Learner's Permit, I was a Filipino citizen and, therefore, it was really crucial that I abide by my home country's regulations on the use of surnames, especially if I have to renew my Philippine passport.

In spite of all the explanations and all the Australian documents (Teacher's Registration, Medicare, Tax File number, bank statements) that I submitted to support my argument as to why I should still bear my father's surname in my married name, my request was denied. Hence, my driver's license (and of course car registration, since it links to the client number, which is the same as my driver's license number) showed that I still held my maiden middle name.

Now that's going to change. Service SA will finally amend my driver's license after the meeting today. I am really grateful to the lady that assisted me. She was even apologetic that I had to wait long. (It wasn't actually that long. I probably just had to wait for only 20 minutes, and the issue was resolved the same day. For all she knows, I was conditioned and trained in the Philippines to wait longer than that, and there would also be a chance that I'd need to go back the next day or whenever. So, really, 20 minutes is not really that long.)

Anyway, she asked that I surrender my old driver's license card as they will need to destroy it and it will be replaced with a new card, showing the correct name that I have always intended to use for the rest of my life. This sense of identity is one of the things I strongly hold dear. After all, I am a Filipino and I am my father's daughter.

If you have read the whole post and have any feedback or want to share a similar experience to what I went through, please leave a comment below. Thank you for reading and bye for now!

I would like to acknowledge @surpassinggoogle for his Ulog initiative because it helps us (Steemit users) write something about ourselves even on a daily basis.

The "U" in #Ulogs means "You."

The following are some of my Ulog posts since I started #ulogging on 1st June 2018:

Ulog No.	Title
30	"What was my day like in the city?" also, my Monday in Adelaide
29	Sunday Bustle
28	Busy day but there's still room for Ampalaya
27	Coffin Bay Oysters and How to Make Oysters Kilpatrick
26	When will it be my turn?
25	Tired

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