ILOILO City – Seventy-three children in Western Visayas need adoptive parents to care for them and give them a better shot at life.
“Kon may tagipusoon kita para sa mga children in need, pwede kita ka-apply as foster parents kon temporary lang nga placement sang mga kabataan, or maging adoptive parents if you want to grow your family through adoption,” said Janice Brasileño, chief of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Regional Alternative Child Care Office (RACCO).
The children have been vetted by RACCO and declared as legally available for adoption.
DSWD has been campaigning for the legal adoption of children and discourages simulated adoption or the faking of birth certificates to make it appear that adopted children are biological offspring of couples.
Legally adopting a child gives him or her a permanent home and equal rights and privileges like legitimate children, “as if the child was born sa family,” said Brasileño.
It is now easier and faster to adopt a child legally, she stressed.
Republic Act (RA) 11642 or the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act simplifies and makes inexpensive domestic administrative adoption proceedings, and streamlines services for alternative childcare.
In the case of the 73 children cleared for adoption, Brasileño said six are now ready for presentation in the regional matching; eight are for independent living; 17 have already been given Inter-Country Adoption Clearance (ICA); seven were issued with regional adoption clearance; one has been presented in regional matching conference; and 34 are still under Special Home Findings.
Those wishing to adopt children should submit their application to the DSWD regional office.
“With the implementation of RA 11642, nagadamo na ang naga-interest kay mas hapos kag barato. Wala filing fee nga gina-impose. Ang gastusan lang gid nila ang pagproseso sang documents, ang panotaryo sang ila petition,” said Brasileño.
Last week, the second week of June, was marked as Adoption and Alternative Child Care Week (AACCW). It was themed, “#EveryChildMatters: A New Era in Adoption and Alternative Child Care.”
DSWD regional information officer Atty. May Castillo said through legal adoption children are given permanent homes and this is for their best interest.
But she stressed the importance of privacy and confidentially of data.
“We are aware of foundlings and mostly, these cases reach the media. We press for the confidentiality of their identities including leads to identifying them,” she said.
Since 2009, DSWD Region 6’s RACCO has put up for legal adoption 645 children who were given CDCLAA or “Certification Declaring a Child Legally Available for Adoption”./PN
