ILOILO CITY (PIA) -- The Regional Alternative Child Care Office (RACCO) 6 beefed up efforts in promoting a positive environment for adoption with the implementation of Republic Act No.11642 or the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act.

An attached agency of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), RACCO initiated a media forum here which aims to promote adoption, foster care, and other alternative child care programs among its media partners for wider information dissemination and mainstreaming of new laws pertaining to child care and development.

In her opening message, RACCO 6 Officer-in-Charge Janice J. Brasileño noted that the series of week-long advocacy activities they are carrying out is in line with the Adoption and Alternative Child Care Week being celebrated every second week of June yearly as mandated under the aforesaid law, enacted on January 28, 2022.

Moreover, RACCO 6 Social Welfare Officer Jewel Rose Galila discussed the Republic Act No. 10165 or the Foster Care Act, an act which strengthens and propagates foster care.

This entails provision of planned temporary substitute parental care to a child by a foster parent.

Galila however emphasized that the law provides, only those who are duly licensed by the National Authority for Child Care (NACC) through the RACCO can be deemed as foster parents.

three years prior to the effectivity of the Act; the date of simulation must be on or before the law’s effectivity; and the child shall have no other registered birth certificate other than the simulated one.

During the forum, Mabel Galas-Ganancial, a prospective adoptive mother from Nueva Valencia, Guimaras shared her experience together with her husband in their adoption journey, pointing out the importance of adhering to the law.

“We are happy that the RA 11222 has granted us a chance to correct what we have made wrong in the birth certificate of our child. With this, we are now relieved that our daughter can now avail the same legal rights and privileges with our legitimate son,” said Ganancial.

She also encouraged other adoptive parents who falsified their child’s birth certificate to come out, ask for assistance from their local authorities, and rectify their children’s records while the amnesty is still in place.

“For those parents in a similar situation, this is your chance to correct the wrong decisions you have made. It is now a high time for you to avail the amnesty as this is a way to ensure the welfare of your child whom you love and cared for as your own,” added Ganancial. (AAL/AGP/PIA 6)