Congress to ratify bill to fast-track child adoption process

When it resumes regular session tomorrow after a month-long Christmas break, Congress is expected to ratify a bill seeking to do away with the current lengthy court proceedings in the adoption process of some 6,000 children.

Hopefully, the measure will be signed into law by President Duterte in time for a week-long Adoption Consciousness Celebration from February 10 to 18.

The House of Representatives has been tasked to consolidate Senate Bill 2081 and House Bill 5675 or the “Simulated Birth Rectification Act of 2018” that both legislative houses have ratified, and transmit it to Malacañang for the President’s signature.

Records from the Department of Social Welfare and Development DSWD) showed that about 6,500 children have been declared available for adoption, with almost 4,000 of them under the care of the government and non-government residential care facilities.

Under the measure, prospective parents need not undergo the lengthy judicial process in the adoption of a child, which usually takes more than six months to complete.

The bill also “grants amnesty and allows the rectification of the simulated birth of a child where simulation was made for the best interest of the child, and that such child has been consistently considered and treated by the person.”