DSWD FO 02 kicks off this year’s celebration of Adoption Consciousness Month with the launching of an adoption help desk at SM City, Cauayan, Isabela on February 27, 2015 with the theme, “Legal na ampon ako: anak na totoo.”

The launching of the said help desk was in partnership with SM Cares Foundation, among others, and other participating government and non-government organizations.

This advocacy seeks to strengthen awareness on legal adoption and continues to warn the public against simulation of birth certificate.

“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,” says Ms. Rosario Corpuz, DSWD Field Office 02 Focal Person for Adoption and Foster Care Services.

On the issue of meticulous process of legal adoption such as series of interviews and counselling as a deterrent to adoptive parents, Ms. Corpuz reasoned out that this rigid process seeks to ensure the best interest of the adoptee considering the implications of legal adoption both to the adoptee and the adoptive parents.

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.### By: GELA FLOR R. PEREZ, Regional Information Officer II