QUEZON CITY -- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) lauded the ratification of the Senate of the Philippines and the House of Representatives on the “Domestic Administration Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act.”

The DSWD emphasized that the new bill is a milestone legislation since it will ensure that the best interest of Filipino children in need of alternative care will be immediately addressed through foster care and permanent families will be found through an administrative process of legal adoption.

The Department has advocated to make legal adoption an administrative process. It is envisoned that the bill will encourage more Filipino families to legally adopt children and completely eradicate the crime of simulation of births.

The DSWD explained that the proposed measure will ensure implementation of standards regarding the living conditions of children under alternative care which will be conducive to their holistic development.

The bill which creates the National Authority for Child Care (NACC), will reorganize the Inter-Country Adoption Board (ICAB), an attached government agency of the DSWD, to handle all applications, petitions, and inquiries regarding alternative child care in the Philippines.

The DSWD expressed its full support towards the signing of the bill into law and will continue to advocate for legal adoption as the only legitimate process to ensure and safeguard the best interest of abandoned, neglected, orphaned, and surrendered Filipino children. (DSWD)