In a bid to speed up adoption, former president now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo proposed a bill to address the problem of “overaged children” who are deemed unfit for adoption by unifying all adoption laws and creating a child care authority. “This bill seeks to address this problem by creating a ‘one-stop-shop code’ whereby those who seek to adopt and/or foster care will be easily facilitated to the best interest of every child available for adoption and/or foster care,” Arroyo said. The NCCA would be headed by an Executive Director and would have two divisions — the Domestic Child Care Division and Inter-Country Child Care Division. Both divisions are mandated to create a database of all children for adoption as well as adoptive parents. The committee would be composed of a child psychiatrist, a doctor, a lawyer, a registered social worker and a member of a non-government organization involved in alternative child care.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer July 13, 2017 10:18 UTC