The National Authority for Child Care (NACC) decried the “misleading” and “unlawful” depiction of adoption and foster care as a form of alternative child care in the controversial film “Dear Satan.”
In a statement, NACC Undersecretary Janella Ejercito Estrada expressed disappointment on the new film “as it runs counter to the NACC’s mandate in informing and educating the public on the legal mechanisms of adoption and alternative child care and in creating a positive environment for adoption through the mass media.”
“It is unfortunate that while “Dear Satan” implores artistic freedom, the film runs counter to the NACC mandate and diminishes the successes and milestones painstakingly earned by the government, child welfare professionals, and other NACC stakeholders in ensuring that the general public is aware and an active participant to the legal process of adoption,” Usec. Estrada stressed.
“Along with the streamlining of adoption and alternative child care programs and services, it is our duty to raise public awareness on the legal process of administrative adoption and alternative child care and debunk connotations and illegal practices that pose threat against the safety of a child in need of a steady and a happy family,” Usec. Estrada said.
“’Dear Satan’ validates the longstanding illegal practices of adoption such as choosing a child and haphazardly taking her/him home, and that there is no need for training, licensing and preparation of Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs) and foster parents,” Estrada explained.
“The best interest of a child is always put into paramount consideration in deciding upon the most suitable method of alternative child care such as domestic adoption, inter-country adoption, foster care, kinship care, family-like care, or residential care,” Estrada stressed.
Usec. Estrada further explained that the entrustment or placement of a child is assessed and decided through a matching process conducted by an independent multi-disciplinary panel of experts called as the Regional and Inter-Regional Matching Committees. The matching committees are composed of medical doctors, child psychologists, lawyers, and a representative from volunteer organization(s) that caters to child welfare.
Estrada also emphasized that a PAP or foster parent must undergo appropriate training, counselling, evaluation and preparation before being issued a license to be entrusted or placed with a child. “It is our duty to ensure that a PAP or foster parent is willing and capable of nurturing a child’s holistic development and that the personal decision to adopt or provide foster care to a child is not merely based on whims and caprices,” she stressed.
“On foster care alone, ‘Dear Satan’s screenplay is a sheer disregard of due diligence and complete staff work in depicting a credible story, more so the noble lifelong work of our social workers and partner Child Caring and Child-Placing Agencies. They do not conduct themselves as “Dear Satan” depicts them. It is unconscionable if not an insult,” Estrada lamented.
The NACC is the Philippine’s central authority on administrative adoption and alternative child care established by virtue of Republic Act No. 11642 or the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act. All government programs such as the declaration of a Child Legally Available for Adoption, Domestic Adoption, Inter-Country Adoption, and other forms of alternative child care such as foster care, kinship care, family-like care, and residential care have been streamlined under the NACC for simpler, streamlined, and inexpensive processes. (PR)
