The Regional Alternative Child Care Office (RACCO) in Central Visayas on Thursday urged parents to adopt through the administrative adoption process, which is now easier than the court proceedings under the old law. Concepcion Solera, officer-in-charge of RACCO-7, said about 50 percent of the more than 800 children declared as legally available for adoption are waiting for adoptive parents via the new process under Republic Act 11642 or the Domestic Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act of 2022. The other half of the number are in the process of adoption, some of them are going through the old procedure. ‘You don’t need to go to court to adopt a child. If you plan to adopt, you can come to us and attend an adoption forum online then come to us for adoptive family parenting training,’ Solera told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an interview. After the training, prospective adoptive parents will be guided to their nearest local government unit to look for an adoption social worker to facilitate the documentation, home visit, and reporting. Once the documents submitted are sufficient and verified, RACCO will issue an order for publication of the application for three consecutive weeks. The parties can proceed with the mandatory appearance soon after the publication requirement is completed and before they submit the documents to the National Authority for Child Care for the issuance of the certificate of finality. The region posted a total of 866 children legally declared available for adoption from 2009 to June 2023. According to the figures, adoptive applicants have reached 636 while foster parents have now reached 66, and foster children in the region numbering to 103. ‘These numbers reflect the growing interest and commitment of individuals and families in providing loving homes to children in need,’ Solera said.
Source: Philippines News Agency
