Simulation of birth
While safeguarding the interests of the child is paramount, it is time for legislators to revisit, analyze, and assess the necessity of the judiciary’s role in adoption proceedings.
Published in Daily Tribune on October 09, 2020
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Couples who desire to, but cannot, have children have the option of adopting. But because the process of adoption is taxing on both time and resources, some childless couple’s resort to the go-to, although illegal, alternative of assuming parentage of new-born infants who are abandoned by their biological parents. With the connivance of less than scrupulous midwives or hospital personnel, these couples register these infants as theirs. Most couples who do this may not realize that they are committing a crime. Stories of these arrangements abound. So much so that Congress provided relief from criminal liability to these would-be parents by enacting the Simulation of Birth Rectification Act (RA 11222). The government is giving an amnesty from criminal liability by allowing violators to legally adopt these children and at the same time correct the simulated birth.
Affected couples may petition the infant’s adoption, provided that it is done in the interest of the child who must have already been living with them for at least three years before 29 March 2019.
Their petition must be supported by (i) the required consent documents of related parties (e.g., adoptee, adopter’s spouse); (ii) the simulated birth or foundling certificate; (iii) proof that the child has lived with the petitioner for three years; (iv) a Certificate Declaring a Child Legally Available for Adoption from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) if the adoptee is below 18 or is not a relative within the 4th degree of consanguinity; and (v) photographs of the child and the petitioner taken three months before filing. Additional requirements may be required at any stage of the proceeding as deemed necessary by the officer reviewing the petition.
Petitioners must submit their petitions to the Social Welfare and Development Officer (SWDO) for evaluation. If found sufficient in form and substance, the SWDO endorses the petition to the DSWD Regional Director who then prepares a recommendation and submits the same together with the petition to the DSWD Secretary. If the petition is meritorious, the DSWD Secretary issues an Order of Adoption. The proceedings will take roughly two months max and is faster, more convenient, and cheaper than adoption through the regular courts. The general public is encouraged to consult the DSWD or their locality’s SWDO for further information on this proceeding.
RA 11222 is a welcome development as it rectifies the consequences of simulated births, settles the rights, status and filiation of the child, and encourages those who violated the law to come forward and set things right. However, administrative adoption only applies to those who violated the law. Those who did not but yearn to be parents must go through the regular adoption process, that is, they will have to attend an adoption forum/seminar, secure home study reports, wait for matching and placement of a child, and secure a Certification on Consent to Adoption issued by the DSWD. This is just for the administrative phase of the adoption proceedings. Adopters are required to file a Petition before the Family Courts where they will undergo supervised Trial Custody and hearings on their Petition. It is only after they have successfully satisfied these requirements will a decree of adoption issue in favor of the adopter.
Many people resort to simulation of birth because judicial adoption can be expensive, inconvenient and, most importantly, protracted. While safeguarding the interests of the child is paramount, it is time for legislators to revisit, analyze, and assess the necessity of the judiciary’s role in adoption proceedings. The DSWD, more than any agency or institution of government, is best equipped to assess how appropriate adoption is for the child and the prospective parents. The success of RA 11222 could be the best case for making adoption purely administrative.
