Congressional performance is usually measured by big-ticket legislation that affects a vast number of people – the national budget, tax reform, laws to broaden access to health and education, and in the last two years, measures to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
But in recent days, a bill has been transmitted to President Duterte for signature that is important as well, not because of the scale of its coverage, but because its goal is to correct decades of injustice suffered by a class of people who have been severely disadvantaged by accident of birth.
The Foundling Recognition and Protection Act, which recognizes foundlings as natural-born Filipinos, is now awaiting President Duterte’s signature.
The bill, principally authored by Senator Risa Hontiveros, states that an abandoned child found in the country or in its embassies, consulates, and territories, shall be presumed a natural-born Filipino citizen.
The bill also grants foundlings rights to government programs and services, such as registration, facilitation of documents for adoption, education, protection, nourishment, and care.
It also seeks to streamline the registration process for a foundling regardless of age and circumstances and expedite the issuance of a birth certificate.
“The Foundling law is a signature away from becoming law. There is no longer a need to go to the bicameral council committee because we have just adopted the Senate version considering that both versions are almost the same, if not completely identical,” said Ang Probinsyano Rep. Ronnie L. Ong, who authored the House version of the bill.
He said the measure did not have to go through a bicameral conference as the House adopted the Senate version.
“The utmost motivation of this bill is the best interest of the child,” Hontiveros said during the voting. “The child is deprived not just of a family but of the right to have a name, nationality, and access to government programs and services. This is the gap that we are trying to fill in.”
Senator Grace Poe, who is a foundling and suffered disqualification cases because of it when she ran for President in 2016, expressed her support for the bill.
“In 2013 when I ran as a senator, it was already a subject of a legal discussion, whether my being a senator was legal because of the supposed uncertainty as a natural-born citizen,” the senator, who was adopted by movie stars Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces, said. “Imagine the hurt of thousands of Filipinos who do not know who their biological parents are.”
As of December 2021, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) recorded at least 6,580 certificates of foundlings.
There were also 1,473 foundlings legally available for adoption from 2009 to October 2021, based on the data of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
That isn’t a lot of people, but each one matters. After all, as Hontiveros underscored, it is the government’s duty to provide protection to every child, regardless of status or circumstances of birth.