SC: DSWD certificate needed in adoption of ‘surrendered’ kids
Abandoned children who are surrendered to a person with whom they have no existing ties cannot be legally adopted without a certification from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
This was the recent ruling of the Supreme Court’s Third Division when it junked a petition for certiorari in connection with an adoption case involving a child born in May 2016 who was surrendered by her mother for financial incapacity.
The Third Division said it found “no basis” to grant the petition filed by Eleazar Robiso, whose earlier petitions were dismissed by the Parañaque Regional Trial Court (RTC) and the Court of Appeals (CA).
The Parañaque court ruled that Robiso failed to comply with the adoption requirements under Republic Act No. 9523, while the appellate court said the petition was the “wrong remedy” as he should have filed a regular appeal.
No reversible error
“The RTC committed no reversible error in dismissing the petition on the ground of noncompliance with the provision of (the law). Such dismissal completely disposes of the case. Consequently, the court finds no reason to disturb the disposition of the CA in dismissing Eleazar’s petition for certiorari filed before it for being the wrong remedy,” said the 12-page ruling of the high court penned by Associate Justice Japar Dimaampao.
Robiso went to the RTC and then the CA to formally adopt the child who was deemed “voluntarily committed,” which under the law refers to a someone whose parents or legal guardian willingly relinquished parental authority to the DSWD or any other accredited child-caring agency.
In Robiso’s original petition before the Parañaque RTC in 2017, he turned in only an affidavit of consent to adoption and the grant of custody of the child executed by the mother due to financial incapacity. The lack of DSWD papers, which would declare a child legally eligible for adoption, led to the dismissal of the petition.
Robiso argued before the Supreme Court that the DSWD certification was required only for “abandoned, neglected or voluntarily committed” children.
The high tribunal disagreed, noting that it also covers those who were “surrendered” as it cited Article 154 of Presidential Decree No. 603, or the Child and Youth Welfare Code.
It added that the DSWD certification, which became compulsory in adoption proceedings only when RA 9523 took effect in 2009, is not required in the adoption of an illegitimate child by a biological parent, of a child by a step-parent, or a child by a relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity.
