The Senate has ratified the bicameral conference committee report on the bill that seeks to simplify the adoption process in the Philippines.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, chair of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, reported the final version of the committee report on Senate Bill No. 1933 and House Bill No. 8998 on Tuesday night.
According to Hontiveros, the House of Representatives has decided to adopt the Senate version of the measure that reorganizes the Inter-Country Adoption Board (ICAB) into the National Authority for Child Care or NACC.
“I am proud to say that this law is the product of meaningful collaboration and cooperation between all stakeholders involved in alternative childcare—legislators from both chambers who are all passionate about protecting children, government agencies and NGOs involved in this line of work, and most importantly, adoptive families whose experiences have guided and illumined this bill every step of the way,” she said.
The senator said some of the salient points in the measure include the provision for administration adoption, which removes the judicial process that has previously made legal adoption lengthy and costly.
The bill also reorganizes the ICAB into the NACC, which is envisioned to be a one-stop shop for alternative child care.
The measure also seeks to improves on the country’s existing policies and processes on alternative childcare, to better protect the best interests of the child, particularly those who are neglected and abandoned and to bring them into loving homes.