ADOPTION. Dulag, Leyte Mayor Mildred Joy Que signs a pledge of commitment for the implementation of the foster care program in her municipality during a ceremony in Tacloban City on Tuesday (April 30, 2024). The National Authority for Child Care said the partnership will make local chief executives champions of legal adoption. (PNA photo by Eljon Manzanes/OJT)
TACLOBAN CITY – The National Authority for Child Care (NACC) has signed an agreement with eight local government units (LGUs) in Eastern Visayas to carry out the foster care program.
The LGUs are Basey in Samar; Dulag, Abuyog, Barugo, and Merida in Leyte; and Libagon, Silago, and Maasin City in Southern Leyte.
During the signing ceremony at the Summit Hotel here on Tuesday, NACC Assistant Secretary Rowena Macalintal said the partnership will make local chief executives champions of legal adoption.
“Our mayors will designate social workers to be trained in foster care, and they will become adoption specialists in their locality,” she said.
The LGUs are initially tasked to identify at least 10 parents who are capable and qualified to participate in the foster care program, which is being implemented in line with Republic Act (RA) No. 11642, or the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act.
“The law introduced much-needed reforms in the adoption process, with the end in view of providing a much simpler and streamlined administrative adoption process,” Macalintal said.
Josamae Sedillo, head of the Regional Alternative Child Care Office in Eastern Visayas, said that although they intend to forge partnerships with all LGUs, they prioritized towns and cities with capabilities.
“The partnership exemplifies our pursuit to provide a better life for children. These local governments are capable of providing the necessary tasks and functions to support the foster care program,” she said.
Those who may be placed under foster care include a child who is abandoned, surrendered, neglected, dependent, or orphaned; a victim of sexual, physical, or any other form of abuse or exploitation; someone with special needs; and someone awaiting adoptive placement and who would have to be prepared for family life.
NACC was established as a quasi-judicial agency attached to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, which now has exclusive and original jurisdiction on all matters pertaining to domestic administrative adoption, inter-country adoption, foster care, and other forms of alternative childcare.
Since the implementation of the adoption law in 2022, the Philippine Foster Care Program has covered 1,143 children under foster care.
In Eastern Visayas, 110 children are up for assessment, 11 of whom are adopted and 22 are being considered for adoption. (PNA)
