MALAYBALAY CITY (BukidnonNews.net/ 09 June 2025)—Seventy out of 113 children in Northern Mindanao have been adopted under the newly created National Authority for Child Care (NACC).
Social welfare officer Pauline Akut said the agency now manages adoption cases under a simplified and cost-effective system.
In the past, adoption petitions were filed through the courts. Now, cases are lodged via the agency’s Regional Alternative Child Care Office (RACCO).
This has been done since RA 11642 or the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act took effect in 2022. It created NACC under the Department of Social Welfare And Development, shifting the process from judicial to administrative.
“Ang adoption man isa ka socio-legal process…” Akut said in a radio program Lambo Dyes on June 3. “Dili lang basta-basta ma-place ang bata ngadto sa atong adoptive parents kung di in line gyud siya sa mandato sa atong balaod.”
(Adoption is a socio-legal process; children cannot just be placed with any adoptive parents unless it follows the proper legal mandate.)
Social welfare officer Salha Hadji Rashid said that the new process reduces costs and speeds up proceedings. However, requirements such as medical and psychological assessments, income records, police clearances, and home visits by social workers remain in place.
Al Theodore and Lorilyn Cañazares, a couple from the region, shared that after seven years of attempting to conceive, they decided to adopt under the new law.
“Di man gyud siya ingon na expensive. Kani karon is time lang gyud imong kailangan,” Al Theodore said. (It’s not costly anymore. Now, it’s just a matter of giving your time.)
Lorilyn said the paperwork was manageable, though an error in their child’s birth certificate caused a delay.
To increase public awareness, the NACC is organizing a Pre-Adoption and Alternative Child Care Forum on June 11 at SM Uptown, 1 p.m. Akut said the forum aims to encourage more families to pursue adoption. (with reports from Recthie T. Paculba/PIA-10)
Banner photo by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash.