Understanding Philippine Clearances
What clearances actually verify — and what they don't.
NBI, police, and barangay clearances are essential. But each one has jurisdictional limits that most families don't know about.
National Scope
NBI Clearance
The National Bureau of Investigation clearance shows whether criminal cases have been filed in Philippine courts against the candidate. Its scope is nationwide — it covers all courts across the Philippines, not just one locality.
Limitations
The NBI clearance does not reflect civil cases. It also cannot show criminal cases that are still under investigation — if a case is still with the prosecutor, police, or NBI investigators and has not yet been filed in court, the clearance will show nothing. The candidate will appear clear even while under active investigation.
Local vs. National Scope
Police Clearance
A standard police clearance verifies criminal records only within the locality where it was issued — typically one municipality or city. Unlike the NBI clearance, it does not cover cases filed in courts outside that jurisdiction.
This is the critical gap: a candidate with a clean local police clearance from Pasay may have pending cases in Quezon City, Cebu, or any other jurisdiction — and the local clearance would not reflect them.
Limitations
Cannot detect criminal cases filed outside the issuing locality. Cannot detect civil cases. Like the NBI clearance, cases still under investigation will not appear.
How we address this: NPCS 18-Region Verification
Instead of accepting a single local police clearance, MaidProvider.ph verifies records via the National Police Clearance System (NPCS) — which screens across all 18 administrative regions of the Philippines. This closes the jurisdictional gap that local clearances leave open.
This is part of our Security Double-Lock™ Standard — NPCS 18-region verification paired with NBI biometric authentication.
Community Level
Barangay Clearance
The barangay clearance confirms whether cases have been filed at the barangay level only — the smallest administrative unit in the Philippines. Its scope is limited to a single barangay. It does not cover any other barangay, municipality, or region.
Limitations
Only reflects cases within that specific barangay. A candidate could have complaints or cases in neighboring barangays or different cities, and this clearance would show a clean record.
Why one clearance isn't enough.
Each clearance covers a different scope — national courts (NBI), local police records (police), and community-level cases (barangay). But none of them talk to each other, and all three miss cases still under investigation. Relying on any single clearance leaves jurisdictional blind spots.
MaidProvider.ph's approach
We require all three clearances — freshly procured from the issuing office, not accepted from previous copies. We then layer the NPCS 18-region verification on top, which screens across all administrative regions simultaneously. This is paired with NBI biometric authentication, government ID cross-referencing, employer verification, and field address confirmation.
The result is the Security Double-Lock™ Standard — a verification system designed to close the gaps that individual clearances cannot.
Learn more: Document Verification · Screening Standards · Medical & Psychological Screening
This page is part of our Document Verification system — one layer of the Security Double-Lock™ Standard.
Questions about our verification process?
Our Care Team can walk you through every step.
Call 0998 888 1818DOLE Licensed M-24-04-034 · Response within 48 hours