SC prods Makati Court to resolve adoption case for a 7-year-old child

MANILA, Philippines–Taking into consideration the welfare of an abandoned child, seven-year-old child, the Supreme Court has ordered the Makati City Regional Trial Court to proceed “with dispatch” the adoption proceedings by her foster parents.

The child was born on Dec. 13, 2012 in Tuguegarao City. She was barely 22 days when she was rescued by a non-government organization from trafficking and referred to the Department of Social Welfare and Development after her biological mother tried to give her away in exchange for transportation fare.

DSWD gave the care of the child to an American couple that has been working in the Philippines since 2007. The couple also adopted another girl which is much older than the one rescued in Tuguegarao through domestic adoption.

Following the requirements under the law, the couple proceeded to file a petition for domestic adoption before the Makati Court in hopes that the procedure will run smoothly as their eldest daughter.

But the Makati RTC Branch 136 said that since the couple are both foreigners, the petition should be handled by the Inter-Country Adoption Board (ICAB). The couple filed a motion for reconsideration but was dismissed by the court.

The persistent couple again filed an appeal saying that the ICAB and the Supreme Court entered into an agreement regarding the treatment of foreigners residing in the Philippines. They insisted that they are qualified for having been in the country for more than three years. But the second motion for reconsideration has been dismissed. The case went to the Court of Appeals but it only affirmed the lower courts ruling prompting the couple to go to the Supreme Court.

In the 14-page resolution penned by Justice Ramon Paul L. Hernando, the high court said the couple’s petition for adoption was “was appropriately filed under the Domestic Adoption Act of 1998.”

It noted that petitioners have been residing and gainfully employed in the Philippines since 2007 and 2009, and are thus living in the Philippines for at least three continuous years prior to the filing of the petition for adoption, as required by the Domestic Adoption Act.

“In view of this, We hold that since the case properly falls under the Domestic Adoption Act, it is for the best interest of the child that the instant case be speedily disposed by continuing the proceedings in the trial court for the determination of whether petitioners are indeed qualified to adopt the child, instead of inappropriately referring the instant domestic adoption case to the ICAB where the proceedings may have to start anew and might be referred back to the trial court for the continuation of the domestic adoption proceedings. Settled is the rule that in adoption proceedings, the welfare of the child is of paramount interest,” the Court held.

The high court further held that a relaxation of the rules of procedure is necessary in the instant case in order to promote the best interest of the adoptee child.