DSWD to parents: Kids are not collateral for debts
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is aware that there are some parents who subject their own children to the legal adoption process in order to pay off their debts to other people and this is something the agency will not tolerate.
As part of its continuing advocacy to uphold legal adoption in the country, the DSWD has pushed for stronger coordination with other state agencies and local government units (LGUs) to prevent such cases, which can be construed as a form of child trafficking.
“We are monitoring cases of parents who ask people to whom they owe large debts to adopt their children so that they can be cleared from their debts,” Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo said in a press statement yesterday.
“This is a clear form of child trafficking and we want to end this by establishing stronger links with national government agencies, local government units and the public so that we can all be on the lookout against it,” she added.
Per DSWD data on child trafficking, a total of 1,713 has been served under the Recovery and Reintegration Program of Trafficked Persons of the agency from January to December last year. Of this figure, 258 of the victims are children.
The DSWD held a forum last Friday at the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) central office in Quezon City to strengthen its interagency coordination on the process of legal adoption in the Philippines.
The activity sought to educate participants on the legal process of adoption and foster care, and to provide program orientation on alternative family care, focusing on the laws, policies and guidelines issued by the DSWD.
Among the attendees were members of the DILG, selected heads of barangays and City/Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office, and officers of the Association of Barangay Captains in Metro Manila.
Director Leocadio Trovela of the DILG National Barangay Operations Office underscored the importance of having such forums as his department along with the LGUs are mandated to protect children’s rights.
“The role of the DILG in this advocacy is essential. Our intention is to increase adoption advocates and remind barangay officials, through the DILG, to become custodians of children’s rights because of their direct link to communities,” Trovela said.
The forum was one of the major activities the DSWD has lined up this month for the 2017 Adoption Consciousness Celebration (ACC), which carries the theme: “Pagmamahal Palaganapin, Legal na Pag-aampon Ating Gawin! (Spread Unconditional Love through Legal Adoption).”
Over the next few months, the DSWD said it will sign a memorandum of agreement with other state agencies aimed at renewing the commitment to intensify the legal adoption advocacy through its promotion in schools, medical and health facilities, courts and LGUs down to the barangay level.