Poe seeks to streamline PH’s child adoption process

Senator Grace Poe said she will file a bill that will streamline the process of child adoption in the country.

Poe, during the kick-off celebration of the Adoption Consciousness Week in Pasay City over the weekend, announced that she intends to file a measure that would make the adoption process “administrative” in nature so that the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) alone could complete the process.

“Napaka-importante nito kasi maraming mga bata ang nangangailangan ng magulang na magpapalaki, mag-aaruga at magmamahal sa kanila (This is very important because many children are in need of parents who will raise them, take care of them, and love them),” she said.

“Kaya sana sa ating batas ay mapabilis ang proseso ng pag-adopt ng bata kasi napakamahal, napakatagal at marami masyadong paperwork at red tape na kailangan ay mabawasan (That’s why I hope our proposed bill would expedite the adoption of children because the process is expensive, tedious, and full of paper work and red tape that need to be removed),” she added.

Being a foundling, Poe said she understands the plight of adoptive parents who have to go through the tedious judicial and administrative process of adopting a child.

Poe said she aims to speed up the adoption process by taking out the courts from the procedure, and leaving it solely to the DSWD.

“Para maging administrative na lang ang adoption. Hindi na sana kailangang dumaan sa korte, kahit sa DSWD may mga eksperto dapat doon na nakatutok talaga sa mga kasong ganito (So that adoption will only be administrative and will not have to go through the courts. Experts from the DSWD should be the ones handling these cases),” she said.

As a baby, Poe was abandoned in a church in Iloilo. She was later adopted by movie couple Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces.

The senator shared that her adoptive parents, during her years as a student, would have to provide the court adoption papers to the school, instead of her birth certificate.

Poe, saying there was also “some sort of discrimination,” stressed that it is important “to accept abandoned children and those who were ready to be accepted and be loved by families.”

The DSWD leads the observation of the Adoption Consciousness Week, which started on February 10.

Poe said the DSWD is “ready to implement” the bill once it becomes a law.