The Senate on Tuesday approved on third and final reading the bill simplifying the process of adoption in the Philippines.
With 22 affirmative and zero negative vote, the upper house gave its final nod to Senate Bill 1933 or the Domestic Administration Adoption Act.
According to Senator Risa Hontiveros, chairperson of the committee on women, children, family relations, and gender equality, SB 1933 seeks to dispense with the “lengthy process associated with judicial adoption by allowing domestic adoptions via an administrative process.”
“This bill will abbreviate the waiting time of adoptive parents to six to nine months. Instead of years, the waiting time will now only be as long as a pregnancy of a mother. This way, we will encourage more parents to adopt children who need loving homes and caring families,” she said.
The bill will establish a new government body, the National Authority for Child Care (NACC) which will be mandated to handle all applications, petitions and all other matters involving alternative child care, in a manner that is “simple, expeditious, inexpensive, and will redound to the best interest of the child.”
The bill includes specific periods of time for the NACC, the Regional Alternative Child Care Offices (RACCOs), and other government offices to decide on petitions for adoption and facilitate documents.
Decisions of the NACC may be appealed to the Court of Appeals.
The measure also provided procedural safeguards that will ensure the child’s welfare.
The safeguards include a requirement of a home study and case study by a social worker for each application for adoption.
The bill also penalizes abuse and exploitation of children as well as simulation of birth or the fictitious registration of the birth of a child under a person not their biological parent.
Hontiveros said the reforms introduced by the bill will shorten the average adoption process to six to nine months, instead of two to three years.
“According to statistics, only 60% of adoption cases in the country are finalized within one year to three years. Some cases take up to four years or longer. Families end up spending hundreds of thousands of pesos in these lengthy proceedings,” Hontiveros said.
If the bill is enacted, the lawmaker expressed hope that parents will no longer be discouraged from undergoing the legal process of adopting a child and they will no longer undertake informal adoptions, which may deprive the adopted children of full protection of their rights.
Senators Grace Poe and Ramon Revilla Jr., the main authors of the bill, welcomed the passage of the measure. — BM, GMA News
Senate OKs on 3rd reading bill simplifying adoption process
Source: Pinoy Hub News
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