GOD'S GIFT TO HUMANITY
(Speech of Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., before the 10th Global Consultation on Child Welfare Services, August 18, 2009, Dusit Thani Hotel, Makati City)

Secretary Esperanza Cabral and other officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Inter-Country Adoption Board, members of the Association of Child Caring Agencies of the Philippines, our foreign partners in child care, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.

It is with great pleasure that I speak today before your 10th Global Consultation on Child Welfare Services to share with you an advocacy that I have been espousing for quite a long time, and that is the promotion of the rights and welfare of children.

Apt theme

This year's theme of the Global Consultation is "Adoption Practices: Advancing Children's Rights and Welfare". The theme is just right in that it allows a global view on how various countries are protecting and safeguarding the rights and interests of the children, especially those who are marginalized in many respects.

Children who are abandoned, neglected, abused or orphaned need to find refuge in families who will embrace them with warm, loving care. They need to be integrated into family homes that would serve as sanctuaries and give rest to their weary minds, tired bodies and restless souls.

Local statistics

You are all familiar with your country's children-related problems. Here at home, recent statistics from the Department of Social Welfare and Development shows that in the last five years, from 2004 to 2008, there were 7,917 children who were formally adopted; 2,903 children placed under foster care, and 413 children were put under legal guardianship.

Incidentally, these numbers merely give us some insights on the magnitude of the plight of our hapless children. As a public official, I can only hope that the situation is not much worse than the statistics implies.

Vital importance

Whatever be the case, I guess we are all agreed that the rights of children - especially of the forsaken - are of vital importance. The protection of their rights cannot wait. They deserve our undivided attention and prompt action.

Without hesitation, I join you in and congratulate you for your worthy championing of the best interest and welfare of the most vulnerable among our people.

For children mirror the joys and hopes of our daily existence. Their pure innocence radiating in the midst confusion, their honesty shining in the face of hypocrisy and their full faith in a better tomorrow ignoring the worst that poverty and neglect offer cannot but give us, their elders, the strength, the courage and the determination to advance the cause of children's rights and welfare.

Roughly three (3) years ago, I had the privilege to speak before a gathering of yours similar to the present one. And I delivered a statement also on children who need our care. At that time, I explained my then legislative proposal to shorten the adoption process by making it administrative in nature, instead of the tedious judicial process.

Battle partly won

It is my pleasure to report to you, today, that the battle has been partly won. After several months of tedious preparation and lengthy deliberations, the Senate and the House of Representatives had finally passed the bill authorizing the Department of Social Welfare and Development to declare an abandoned child legally available for adoption. This piece of legislation was signed into law last March 12, 2009 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and is now known as Republic Act No. 9523. The new law does not complete our desire to facilitate the adoption process. It merely marks the beginning of our journey in making adoption a less protracted procedure. Shortened process With this law, Republic Act No. 9523, the process of adoption is now shortened by about three weeks for the reason that the route towards declaring an abandoned child legally available for adoption is no longer a court function. It is now delegated by this law to the Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. Within seven (7) days from the date of the recommendation of the DSWD Regional Director, the necessary certification may now be issued by the Secretary that a child is legally available for adoption. The new law is, therefore, a step towards our goal to fully simplify the adoption system. From here we will now move on to our next legislative agenda.

New Code

At present, with the help of DSWD officials and concerned child caring NGOs, I am preparing a bill that prescribes new ways of providing alternative child care. The proposed legislation will consolidate the existing laws on alternative child care, such as the laws on domestic adoption and inter-country adoption, the foster care, and guardianship of children under one Code to be known as "The Alternative Child Care Code of 2009".

Moreover, this bill seeks to establish the "National Child Welfare Authority (NCWA)" that will be a single office with the duty to implement laws relevant to alternative child care in the country.

Less hassles

Under our proposal, a person eligible to adopt shall file his or her application for adoption with The National Child Welfare Authority or through a licensed accredited child placing agency/s. The adoption proceedings will now be administrative and non-adversarial in nature. There will be less legal hassles to overcome. The adoption issue shall be decided to within thirty days upon submission of all the complete documents required by the Authority.

This bill once enacted into law will redefine and expedite adoption in our country. We expect the policy changes mandated by the new legislation to redound to the benefit of our children.

Best inheritance

Hopefully, we shall soon see that all children - the abandoned, the abused, the neglected - in this country shall have homes to nurture them, families to guide and mold their values, and provide them with a peaceful and loving environment that will help prepare their childhood for productive adult lives ahead of them. Doing that is, to my mind, the best inheritance we can bestow upon the children who will inherit the earth we leave behind.

By working as carers of children, we will certainly leave this world a better place than when we first found it. And as believers, we will also fulfill the divine injunction to love others especially the least fortunate. And in the concrete worldly sense we also help do away with that terrible notion propagated by hateful, irrational and egotistical individuals that there is such a being as an unwanted child. A child is God's gift to humanity. It is our duty to care for the child if we are to perpetuate ourselves in humanity.

I congratulate you for your enduring concern for the least privileged and the deprived children of the world.

May God bless your selfless efforts.

Thank you.