Rep. Paul R. Daza of Northern Samar on Wednesday urged hopeful parents to consider adoption.
Daza made this call to hopeful parents as the Omnibus Guidelines on the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act (RA 11642) were launched Wednesday.
RA 11642 mandates that the adoption process of all adoption cases (non-relative, relative within 4th degree of consanguinity or affinity and cases of adult adoption) to become purely an administrative proceeding.
“Through RA 11642, we are correcting age-old problems in adoption—which typically took years to resolve. The previous law, RA 8552 (Domestic Adoption Act of 1998), required a set of procedures—while founded on good intents—that often lead to emotional and financial strains on parties involved, not to mention clogging of cases in courts,” the solon highlighted.
RA 11642 empowers the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to issue adoption creeds—without the need for judicial procedures—saving costs for intending adoptive parents, allowing better chances for children needing adoption and de-clogging the already overburdened courts.
Adoption is considered by societies as an important mechanism through which orphaned, abandoned, abused, or neglected children may have better chances in life.
“Not only are we building better chances for families and children, we are also ensuring clear procedures for helping abused or neglected children. Children in these difficult circumstances need the society’s concerted efforts,” Daza added.
The law recognizes that there are children living in ‘traditional’ families, with both parents at home, but sadly, had to experience deep emotional and physical pains on a day-to-day basis.
“This legislation is also for them. We do not only wish to match prospective parents with prospective children; we also wish to ensure that all Filipino children are living in homes that are truly safe and loving. We thank Secretary Rex Gatchalian and Undersecretary Janella Ejercito Estrada of the National Authority for Child Care (NACC) for expediting the release of the Omnibus Guidelines,” Daza added.
The law mandates adoption telling. Research in the US shows that adolescents who have ongoing contact with their birth parents are more satisfied with their adoption than those without contact. Data revealed that 95 percen adoptions are completed with the agreement to post-placement contact. Open or revealing the adoption to children allows adopted children to fully understand the reasons for their adoption, builds more positive feelings toward their biological mothers, and access to information that later helps them in building their identity, among other benefits.
The law also ensures that adoptive children are going to feel safe in a world that is now dealing with both positive and negative impacts of social media.
“These are important considerations when we deliberated on the law. Through Section 54, we are prohibiting labeling, shaming, bullying, and other discriminatory acts that might be committed against adopted children. We are taking this seriously because we truly understand the long-term effects of bullying and shaming in a world that is sometimes harsh,” Daza stressed.