The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office 02 leads this year’s Adoption Consciousness Month celebration with a series of activities regionwide.
The celebration kicked off with the hanging of advocacy tarpaulines and radio guesting at DWPE Radyo ng Bayan, Tuguegarao City.
Atty. Noel Mora, a member of the Child Welfare Specialist Group, and the Adoption Resource and Referral Section staff of the Field Office, justified the meticulous process of legal adoption as perceived by the public.
“This rigid process seeks to ensure the best interest of the child considering the implications of legal adoption both to the adopted and the adoptive parents,” said Atty. Mora during the radio guesting.
Likewise, Atty. Milagros Cayosa, the Field Office’s Retained Counsel, graced the Adoption Forum in Nueva Vizcaya and underscores the significant role of Local Civil Registrars (LCRs) in curving simulation of birth.
“While registration of birth calls for a ministerial function on your part, it should not stop you from exercising diligence and prudence when a situation presents itself for a careful perusal of the documents being presented,” Atty. Cayosa addressed the LCRs.
Under the Domestic Adoption Act of 1998,simulation of birth is a criminal offense. It is committed when a person causes the fictitious registration of the birth of a child under the name(s) of a person(s) who is not his/her biological parent(s) and shall be punished by imprisonment of 6 to 12 years and a fine not exceeding Ph50, 000.00
Also in attendance at the Forum are Municipal Health Officers and ABC Presidents.
Meanwhile, members of the Social Welfare and Development (SWAD) Office in the Provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino strengthened their advocacy on adoption thru a series of radio guesting and set up of an Adoption Help Desk in their respective offices.
At the SM City Mall in Cauayan City, Isabela, the Field Office established an Adoption Help Desk to cater to the inquiries of the public on legal adoption. The said activity was made possible in coordination with SM Cares Foundation, a partner of DSWD in this advocacy.
Capping off the week-long observance of are the Documentary Film Making on Adoption participated in by students from selected state colleges and universities in the region. The students learned basic script writing and film making under the tutelage of Mr. Benjie de Yro, a former Information Officer at the Philippine Information Agency Regional Office 02 and now a freelance journalist and media practitioner.
“The public has to understand that we at DSWD always considers the best interest of the child in adoption processes and in other services or programs where a child is involve, hence, no shortcuts shall be made in order that the child shall only be placed or put up for adoption to a family where his best interest is the paramount consideration,” expressed Ms. Rosario Corpuz, Adoption Resource and Referral Unit Head.
Legal adoption process involves several steps such as application of interested parents, approval and disapproval of application, preparation of home study report, matching or family selection, pre-placement and placement of child, supervised trial custody, among others. This process would usually take six months to one year.
Legal adoption bequeaths to the adoptee equal rights and obligations similar to those enjoyed by natural children such as the right to use the surname and the right to be the compulsory heirs of the adoptive parents.
This year’s theme of the Adoption Consciousness Month is “Pagmamahal Palaganapin, Legal na Pag-a-ampon ating Gawin (Spread Unconditional Love through Legal Adoption). ### By: Gela Flor R. Perez, Regional Information Officer II