A SOCIAL welfare officer encouraged parents with children through simulated births to avail of the amnesty under the Simulated Birth Rectification Act of 2019, considering it will end in March 2029.
Republic Act 11222 allows the rectification of simulated birth records and took effect on March 29, 2019.
The law grants amnesty and provides for a simpler and less costly adoption process for the children whose birth records were tampered with but treated as their own kids by the foster parents.
Rosalie Preclaro, National Authority for Child Care (NACC) Domestic Adoption Division Social Welfare Officer IV, urged adoptive parents to fix the records of their child through administrative proceedings instead of the courts.
Simulation of birth refers to tampering with the civil registry to make it appear in the record that a child is born to a person who is not the child’s biological mother, causing the loss of identity of the child.
“The law fixes the status and filiation of a child and exempts from criminal, civil, and administrative liability those who simulated the birth records of the child,” Preclaro said in her discussion during the NACC 1st National Congress in Davao City, May 8.
Preclaro added it is significant for a child to fix the relationship of the child to his/her known parent and his identity.
“May value-added siya, dinadala niya tayo doon sa pag combat ng illicit and illegal practices of adoption dahil kapag ginawa mo ito, ni-legalize mo ang placement of the child under your care,” she added.
However, covered only by the law are those birth simulations before 2019 to discourage the public from engaging in future simulations. Every birth simulation after 2019 has to be canceled through a court petition.
The law also states that the child subject to the petition has been living in the custody of the parents for at least three years before March 29, 2019, or March 29, 2016, or earlier.
The administrative adoption covers a non-relative child, a relative child within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity, a child treated as a child since birth, those with a pending petition for cancellation of simulated birth in court, and those of an adult.
The petitioner is advised to file the petition, with complete supporting documents to the local social welfare and development offices of the city or municipality where the child currently resides, regardless of where the simulated birth was registered.
