Adoption, alternative kid care now

simpler, faster, cheaper –RACCO-7

TAGBILARAN CITY Bohol (PIA)—When the cumbersome adoption process of an abandoned, neglected or voluntarily surrendered child then has its share of frustrations, the government has made it way much easier this time, without sacrificing the assurance that the person adopted gets the same parental care as the adopted parents’ kids.

And biggest among all the changes is that adoption now, or at least under Republic Act 11642 or the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act, has become administrative, which is a lot easier than the judicial process.

Under the old law, which is the Domestic Adoption Act or RA 8552, adoptive parents had to file a petition in court, attend hearings, and obtain a judicial decree.

In fact, the hearings can only proceed after satisfying the provisions of Republic Act 9523, which requires the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to facilitate the process leading to the release of a Certificate Declaring a Child Legally Available for Adoption (CDCLAA), before the court litigation can proceed.

As court-driven legal proceedings, this requires the services of a lawyer, so that legal expenses are part of the territory, and the time needed for the entire adoption process can be lengthy.

“With the new law, that is RA 11642, adoption now has become an administrative process,” shares the information officer of the Regional Alternative Child Care Office -7 (RACCO-7) of the National Authority of Child Care (NACC) Cheina N. Maderazo, at the Kapihan sa PIA.

“While RACCO is the regional office of the NACC, the latter is an attached agency of the DSWD, but is now the separate focal hub for all adoption and child care services of the DSWD, now that adoption is administrative, so there would not be any court trials,” she added.

Tracing the old process, RACCO-7 Officer in Charge Concepcion Solera explained: “persons intending to adopt then, would go to the DSWD and then follow the judicial process in courts for their filed petition for adoption.”

“In short, RA 11642 removed domestic adoption cases from the courts and transferred them to the NACC through administrative proceedings and the NACC now issues the Order of Adoption, which has the same legal effect as a court judgment,“ Solera summed.

“Because it has become administrative, it does not get one to court, adoption is sped up, unlike then when adoptive families complain about expensive and tedious adoption process,” Solera explained.

This could also be the reason why adoptive parents hide the adoption, or simulate the adoption.

And “to sweeten the pot,” RACCO said said there is in fact free filing fee for the application for now.

With this, all kinds of adoption is now processed, not in court, but at the RACCO: regular adoption, step-parent adoption, relative adoption, adult adoption, adoption by live birth rectification and foster parent adoption.

But then, who can adopt?

Filipinos who are not below 25 years old with a civil capacity and legal rights, who is 16 years older than the person for adoption, says the new law.

Also, those who are now standing as legal guardians of the adoptee, foster parents, aliens who have become permanent residents of the Philippines and officials of the government assigned abroad, are eligible to adopt.

And, who can be adopted?

According to the new law, a child legally available for adoption includes those voluntarily committed by their biological or legal guardians to the NACC, children who are involuntarily committed, abandoned, neglected, abused, exploited, or surrendered through legal proceedings.

These can be foundlings, orphans by their biological or adoptive parents and without a suitable guardian or relatives to assume care, children in situations of neglect or unsafe environments, legitimate child of one spouse by the other spouse (stepchild adoption), or those declared as legally available for adoption.

Another significant change is that the new law opens a broader alternative child care system by looking at the achild welfare ecosystem and permanency planning, other than domestic adoption and its procedures.

RA 11642 expanded the framework into “alternative child care,” meaning adoption is only one option, the others are foster care, kinship care, family-like care, residential care, and inter-country adoption, but keeping a child with biological family or relatives is always preferred.

This is in line with the tenet that adoptees are legitimate children and are therefore treated similarly with kids of the adoptive family sharing inheritance rights, legitimacy status, use of surname rights, and family relations. (PIAbohol)

BEYOND ADOPTION: CHILD CARE. NACC through their RACCO information Officer Cheina Maderazo (right) explains how the Domestic Adoption Law is now enhanced by the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act which transfers adoption processes from the courts (judicial) which takes time and money, to the RACCO (administrative) and looks at the alternative child care as open option other than adoption. (PIABohol)