Poe pushes simplified adoption process

SEN. Grace Poe has filed a bill that seeks to simplify the adoption process by allowing the correction of “simulated” birth records through administrative proceedings.

She filed on March 5 Senate Bill 1725, which states that a petition for the rectification of a simulated birth record should be filed within 10 years from the effective date of the measure.

Instead of going through the courts, those who will file a petition may do so through the Social Welfare and Development Officer of the city or municipality where the child resides.

The Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) should decide on the petition within 30 days from receipt of the recommendation of the agency’s regional director.

Poe said the simulation of birth refers to the “tampering” of the civil registry to make it appear, in the record of birth, that a child was born to a person who is not such child’s biological mother, causing such child to lose his or her true identity and status.

SB 1725 allows the rectification of the simulated birth of a child when it was made “for the best interest of the child, and that such child has been consistently considered and treated by the person or persons who simulated such birth as his, her, or their own son or daughter.”

“This will give the adoptive parents the opportunity to have the status of their adopted child or children regularized in law,” said Poe, herself an adopted daughter of movie and television actress Susan Roces and the late action star Fernando Poe Jr.

“It is also in the best interest of the parents and the children to have the records rectified for possible future uses such as medical or DNA purposes or for other legal matters,” she added.

Poe also filed Senate Resolution 672 to revisit the Domestic Adoption Act of 1998, noting the gap in the big number of children who may be legally adopted and the successful legal adoption cases.

“The disparity in the number of children declared legally available for adoption and the number of successful legal adoptions in the country is indicative of flaws in the Domestic Adoption Act and its implementation,” she said.

SR 672 asked the Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender to look into the status of the implementation of Republic Act 8552 or the Domestic Adoption Act of 1998.

She urged the panel to make a comprehensive review and gap analysis of the law and streamline adoption procedures.

“It is time to break the barriers that hinder good and caring potential adoptive parents from giving home and family to the thousands of children in orphanages,” Poe said.

Under SB 1725, those who simulated the birth record of a child are spared from criminal, civil and administrative liability, provided that the act was done for the best interest of the child.

The Domestic Adoption Act of 1998 provided an amnesty to enable parents to rectify a record and fully legalize the status of their adopted children.

However, the five-year window, from 1998 to 2003, for the rectification of simulated births under the law had long expired.

Poe said, “adoptions in the Philippines have been and continue to be handled through simulation of birth because the formal adoption procedure remains tedious and excessively costly for ordinary Filipinos.”

“This leaves a lot of adoptees under assumed filiations and unduly deprived of the benefits of legitimacy and succession,” she said.