Hontiveros hopes for fewer illegal adoption cases after passage of alternative child care law

Senator Risa Hontiveros expressed hope that the new law on alternative child care would lessen illegal adoption cases in the country.

“Sana ngayong pinadali at pinabilis na ang proseso ng adoption, wala nang mga indibidwal ang lumabag ng batas para mag-ampon. Nalalagay lang sa panganib ang mga pamilya nila at napapahamak lang ang kapakanan ng bata. Ang pagpapaikli ng proseso ay bawas gastos din para sa adoptive parents,” Hontiveros, chair of Senate women, children, family relations and gender equlity committee, said in a statement.

(Now that the adoption process was streamlined, we hope that there are fewer individuals who will violate the law to adopt children. It puts their family and the children at risk. The shortening of the process will also lessen the expenses for the adoptive parents.)

Hontiveros, who authored the bill in the Senate, said the signing of Republic Act 11642 or the Domestic Administrative Adoption Act is a win not only for the Filipino children but also to adoptive parents.

According to her, the law removes the judicial requirements and lodges the adoption process under the National Authority for Child Care (NACC). This, she said, cuts the adoption process timeline from over three years to about six to nine months.

With the passage of RA 11642, Hontiveros, who is seeking reelection in the 2022 elections, said individuals wanting to be parents would not feel the need to circumvent the law and undertake informal adoptions, which was sometimes the case under the tedious and time-consuming adoption process.

“Ang pagsabatas din nito ay ating pagkilala na ang pagiging magulang, ang pagiging mama o papa, ay hindi lang nakasalalay sa pagiging magkadugo, kundi sa kalinga at lalim ng pagmamahal na naibibigay sa ating mga anak,” she said.

(The enactment of this law recognizes the fact that being a parent, a mother or a father, is not defined by blood relations but their willingness to provide care and love to their children.)

Meanwhile, Senator Pia Cayetano, co-author of the measure, said this law would uphold the best interest of the children.

“I know this law will save so many parents and children from the heartbreak of waiting and waiting for their adoption to be final," she said in a separate statement.

She recalled stories where many young children have already become teenagers before they were declared legally adopted due to the “bureaucracy, insufficient personnel handling adoption cases, and lengthy court proceedings.”

"I can now say that we have a comprehensive domestic administrative adoption law," she said.

On Thursday, Malacañang announced that President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law the bill that creates the NACC.

The agency, which will be under the jurisdiction of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, will process all matters pertaining to alternative child care, including declaring a child legally available for adoption; domestic administrative adoption; adult adoption; foster care, among others.

The law also imposes penalties in case there are any violations of the provisions under the new measure, including the prohibition on adoption discrimination acts such as labelling, shaming, bullying, negative stigma, among others. —KBK, GMA News