CATARMAN, Northern Samar – Newly-elected Rep. Paul Daza of this province’s first congressional district, has filed making the adoption process become purely an administrative proceeding.
Daza, in an interview, said that his bill, once become a law, will empower the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to issue adoption creeds without the need for judicial procedures thereby saving costs for intending adoptive parents, allowing better chances for children needing adoption and de-clogging the already overburdened courts.
Daza’s bill, filed on July 1, is known as ‘“An act Establishing the Rules and Policies on the Domestic Administrative Adoption of Filipinos and for Other Purposes.’
“Adoption is a statutory mandate of DSWD. It has always been the primordial body that sees to the implementation of adoption rules and procedures, allowing adoptive parents and adopted children to enjoy the fullness of blissful family life,” Daza said.
However, Daza said, that the social and legal processes of adoption in the Philippines is considered by many as tedious and costly.
Thus far, only 177 cases were issued adoption decree of which 60% were finalized within 1 to 3 years, Daza added.
He further added that the current law, Republic Act No. 8552 or Domestic Adoption Act of 1998, requires a set of procedures, while founded on good intents, often lead to emotional and financial strains on parties involved, not to mention clogging of cases in courts.
(RESTITUTO A.CAYUBIT)
