Overview:

• Recognition and registration are amalgamated rather than ideally differentiated; a focus is placed on legal registration with few to no provisions for existential recognition.

• Procedures for the registration of religious entities and secular corporate entities are amalgamated rather than ideally distinguished.

• The requirement to submit annual financial statements seems appropriate although procedures surrounding this require monitoring.

• Informational requirements for the registration procedure are intrusive.

Positive elements:

• Horizontal recognition is in effect.

Recommendations:

• Establish separate procedures for religious entity registration and then for existential recognition and legal registration, all distinguished from the procedures established for secular and corporate entities.

• To become dynamic, the Filipino government would need to establish a recognition agency that would manage the newly established recognition system independently from government.