Filipino families seeking to adopt a child may soon find it easier once the bill simplifying the process of adoption in the Philippines is signed into law soon.

This, after the Senate’s version of the measure, Senate Bill No. 1933 or the Domestic Administration Adoption Act, was approved on third and final reading today, Aug. 31. The measure is a consolidation of Senate Bill Nos. 1070 and 1337 authored by Senators Grace Poe and Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr.

Poe lauded the Senate’s approval of the bill saying the measure is key to “have a better future for every child who is dreaming of having a family.”

According to Poe, there are thousands of children who have been voluntarily or involuntarily given up by their parents due to poverty, negligence, abuse, a death in the family and other reasons.

“But thank God that there are those who wish to step up, adopt children and provide them with a loving home. However, the adoption process has not always been easy. And just as it takes a village to raise a child today, we have seen that it takes a village of senators to produce a bill that we can all be proud,” said Poe in her privilege speech.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, chair of the Senate Committee on Women and Children and sponsor of the measure, also said passage of the bill into law would abbreviate the waiting time of adoptive parents to six to nine months, “instead of years.”

“The waiting time will now be as long as a pregnancy of a mother. This way, we will encourage more parents to adopt children who need loving homes and caring families,” Hontiveros stressed also in her privilege speech.

The Senate approved an amendment introduced by Sen. Pia Cayetano, which mandates the institution of a simpler and less-costly administrative process of adoption to be managed by a new government body, the National Authority for Child Care (NACC).

The NACC would be tasked with handling all applications, petitions and all other matters involving alternative child care, in a manner that is “simple, expeditious, inexpensive, and will redound to the best interest of the child.”

The measure also sets specific periods of time on which the NACC, the Regional Alternative Child Care Offices (RACCOs), and other government offices should decide on petitions for adoption and facilitate documents.

Decisions of the NACC may be later appealed to the Court of Appeals (CA).

The bill also puts in place procedural safeguards to protect the child’s welfare against possible abuse, such as the requirement of a home study and case study by a social worker for each application for adoption.

The measure also penalizes abuse and exploitation of children as well as simulation of birth - the fictitious registration of the birth of a child under a person not their biological parent.