House pushes bill to facilitate adoption

The House of Representatives has moved to swiftly pass a bill that would facilitate the process of adoption or foster care of orphans, abandoned and neglected children.

The House Committee on Welfare of Children has formed a technical working group tasked to harmonize the pending bills similarly entitled “Alternative Child Care Code Act.”

Reps. Maria Loudes Acosta Alba; Evelina Escudero and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are principal authors of the proposed measures.

The technical working group was directed to harmonize provisions of the bills concerning the adoption process through administrative adjudication; creation of the National Child Care Authority and the regulation of institutional and residential care of children.

In seeking approval of the bill, Alba related the difficulties faced by orphans in getting new families that would care for them.

“Many of them fail to meet the requirements of pro- spective parents who have ideas regarding the origin, appearance, intelligence or age of child they wish to adopt,” Alba explained.

She also noted that relatives of parentless children contribute to the difficulty by refusing to give their consent.

Arroyo, former secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, stated that codifying the various laws on alternative child care, the various measures envision a “onestop-shop” code to facilitate the process to the best interest of every child available for adoption and/or foster care.

Under the various proposals, the NCCA is mandated to facilitate the adoption process. It shall be the sole authority to accept, evaluate and decide all applications for local and inter-country adoption.