Childless couples told: No shortcuts to adoption
JEN, not her real name, said she planned to adopt her friend’s baby as soon as she gave birth.
She told Cebu Daily News that her friend, who’s nine-months pregnant, is willing to entrust her son to him.
Eight years into her marriage, Jen said adopting her friend’s baby would be the answer to her longing to have a child.
“For us to have someone who can be with us when we grow older. And believing in a myth that this would also help me bear a child,” she said in Cebuano.
But rather than registering the child under their name, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-7) Regional Office advised Jen and other childless couples to undergo adoption proceedings first.
“Our advice is that these couples should not simulate the birth record of the child and register the names of his or her real parents instead,” said Clavel Saycon, DSWD adoption resource and referral section chief.
She said registering a child not their own under their name is called “simulation of birth.”
Saycon said this is considered a criminal offense under Republic Act 8552 or the Act Establishing the Rules and Policies on the Adoption of Filipino children and for other purposes.
“Simulation of birth is the tampering of the civil registry by making it appear in the birth records that a certain child was born to a person who is not his or her biological mother, causing such child to lose his or her true identity and status,” Saycon told Cebu Daily News.
“That is why we undergo adoption process to change the child’s name. The process may be tedious but it is safe,” she said.
Saycon said they are calling on couples who engaged in this practice to come out and rectify their mistake.
Saycon said they don’t know how many couples registered children not their own under their own name.
She supported Sen. Grace Poe’s bill that would fast track the correction of simulated birth records through administrative proceedings.
Instead of going to court, Saycon said adoptive parents may file their petition through the DSWD officers of the city or town that the child lives in.
“If the bill be passed, you no longer need for a lawyer because our service is only for free,” Saycon said.
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