MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino has issued an executive order strengthening the legal protection provided by the government to victims of abuse through the Committee for the Special Protection of Children (CSPC).
Executive Order 53, signed on Aug. 11, amends EO 275 issued in 1995 that created the CSPC.
“The President considers it exceptionally indispensable to give importance to law enforcement as a critical factor in the overall approach to protect children, including their rights, and to make sure that their welfare will not be taken for granted,” said Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. in a statement.
EO 53 reorganizes the CSPC, an inter-agency body that acts indirectly as the coordinating body for the implementation of Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Law and other policies that uphold children’s rights.
The CSPC is mandated to give preferential attention to violent crimes committed against children, and to extend assistance to children belonging to indigenous groups, and those trapped in armed conflict.
“The President believes that the implementation of the Anti-Child Abuse Act and other similar state policies, as well as the discharge of the function of the body principally responsible for the protection of children, will become more effective,” Ochoa said.
The CSPC will be chaired by the secretary of the Department of Justice and co-chaired by the secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Its members include the chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights and the secretaries of the departments of Foreign Affairs, Labor and Employment, Tourism, the Interior and Local Government, Health and Education.
Serving as members are the commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration, director of the National Bureau of Investigation, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), the prosecutor general, and three representatives from private organizations supporting children’s welfare.
The three representatives can be nominated by any member of the CSPC and will be appointed by the committee chairperson for a term of three years, which can be extended.
The Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) will act as the secretariat of the CSPC.
It is also mandated to establish a system of periodic reports from the member agencies on crimes committed against children. It shall then submit an annual report to the Office of the President.
Adoption
The government provides assistance to impoverished families in giving up a child for adoption if the parents cannot provide for its basic needs.
An international law group has in fact recognized that the Philippines has a “well-developed” inter-country adoption system.
“The inter-country adoption policy of the Philippines is well-developed, good, safe, secure... that is a model that we propose to other countries,” said Jennifer Degeling, secretary of the Permanent Bureau of The Hague Conference on Private International Law at the sidelines of the 11th Global Consultation on Child Welfare Services held at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City recently.
Degeling said inter-country adoption authorities in the Philippines are “very well trained” and the country has adequate resources to improve its inter-country adoption process.
“You (Filipinos) have a professional approach in the way you match the child with foreign families,” she said.
She said the country has also maintained good relationships with countries that adopt Filipino children. Still, the government recognizes that there are still existing modus operandi for trafficking children through inter-country adoption.
Social Welfare Undersecretary Alicia Bala said that two cases of illegal inter-country adoption have been reported to the DSWD in the past three years. Bala cited the case of a Filipino woman who traveled to Malta last year as a tourist, only to be discovered that she went there for the adoption of her baby.
“We were informed about this by the Maltese authorities. They discovered that it was illegal adoption when the adoptive parents sought for the legalization of the baby’s stay in their country,” she said.
Bala admitted that only a few cases of child trafficking have been reported to the DSWD because they do not have the means to monitor these illegal activities.
Bernadette Abejo, executive director of the Inter-Country Adoption Board (ICAB), said they keep the records of children who are legally adopted.
“We have their records... because some of the children want to know their identity,” Abejo said. Bala said to date, there are about 20,000 abandoned Filipino children in the country.
In 2009, former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Republic Act 9523 or “An Act Requiring the Certification of the DSWD to Declare a Child Legally Available for Adoption as a Prerequisite for Adoption proceedings.”
The period before a child is considered abandoned has been reduced to a maximum of three months from the original minimum of six months while the period for the child to be declared legally available for adoption was limited to less than two months from up to three years in court proceedings.
RA 9523 effectively made the declaration of abandonment of a child “administrative in nature” because it now requires a certification signed by the DSWD secretary instead of a court order.