NEGLECTED children will have better chances at getting adopted now that the omnibus guidelines on the law providing for an administrative process of adoption have been issued, one of the law’s authors said yesterday.
Northern Samar Rep. Paul Daza said the issuance of the omnibus guidelines on Republic Act No. 11642 or the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act which seeks to strengthen alternative child care will not only make it easier for childless couples to adopt children but will also lighten the load of courts.
RA 11642 mandates that the adoption process of all adoption cases (non-relative, relative within 4th degree of consanguinity or affinity and cases of adult adoption) become purely an administrative proceeding to be undertaken by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
“Through RA 11642, we are correcting age-old problems in adoption–which typically took years to resolve. The previous law, RA 8552 (Domestic Adoption Act of 1998), required a set of procedures–while founded on good intents–that often lead to emotional and financial strains on parties involved, not to mention clogging of cases in courts,” Daza said.
RA 11642 empowers the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to issue adoption creeds–without the need for judicial procedures–saving costs for intending adoptive parents, allowing better chances for children needing adoption and de-clogging the already overburdened courts.
Daza thanked Secretary Rex Gatchalian and Undersecretary Janella Ejercito Estrada of the National Authority for Child Care (NACC) for expediting the release of the Omnibus Guidelines.
He said that while the law recognizes that there are children living in “traditional” families who experience deep emotional and even physical pain daily.
“This legislation is also for them. We do not only wish to match prospective parents with prospective children; we also wish to ensure that all Filipino children are living in homes that are truly safe and loving.
Daza said research in the United States shows that adolescents who have ongoing contact with their birth parents are more satisfied with their adoption than those without contact.
