By Jennifer P. Rendon
The Department of Social Welfare and Development-Region 6 (DSWD-6) warned prospective adoptive parents to be careful with online adoption schemes.
The warning was issued after the DSWD’s Program Management Bureau monitored around 48 fake Facebook accounts that allegedly facilitate adoptions.
Melin Gerona, DSWD-6 focal person on online Adoption Referral & Resource Section, said they only monitored a Facebook offer for adoption that stemmed in La Paz, Iloilo City middle of 2020.
They reported the incident to the local police but it proved to be a dead end.
In Western Visayas, Gerona said “illegal adoption” is not considered rampant.
Usually, adoptions took place between relatives – the biological parent and the adoptive parent.
“At first, what they have is an internal arrangement but after a year, they would seek the help of their local social welfare officer to legalize the adoption,” Gerona said.
She added that it helped that they have been active on their advocacy on legal adoption.
Since 2016 and until the onset of the pandemic, the DSWD-6 had been doing quarterly or semestral advocacy campaigns to highlight the importance of legal adoption.
The DSWD-6 is also doing orientation on the importance of Republic Act No. 11222 or the “Simulated Birth Rectification Act.”
The law allows the rectification of simulated birth records. It also grants amnesty or exemption from criminal, civil, and administrative liability to persons who committed birth simulation if proven that the administrative adoption will redound “for the best interest of the child, and that such child has been consistently considered and treated by the person or persons who simulated such birth as her, his, or their own daughter or son.”
“That’s why, we are encouraging prospective adoptive parents to go to the nearest DSWD offices so that our personnel could assess their capacity to adopt,” Gerona said.
A matching conference will be done with the Child Welfare Specialist Group Matching Committee to match the child’s need to the resources, capacity, and motivation.
“No adoption should take place online. Only the DSWD and the partner registered, and licensed child-placement agencies are allowed to facilitate the legal adoption process,” Gerona said.