Adopted

My late maternal granduncle and his wife, both of them doctors, used to run a maternity clinic that later expanded into a hospital.

Sometimes mothers would abandon their newborns in the hospital. My grandrelatives adopted two abandoned baby girls. One had acute epilepsy, physical deformities and speech impediment – a child who would have a tough time being adopted if turned over to an orphanage.

Both girls grew up in a prosperous environment, and later moved to the US with another adopted daughter, a biological niece of the couple. The one with epilepsy lived into her senior years.

As far as I know, there was no formal process for the adoption of the two girls who were not blood relatives. I don’t think they ever met their biological parents.

Decades later, we still come across reports of women abandoning their newborns in health facilities and even in public toilets and plane lavatories, or at the doorsteps of churches. But we now have several laws governing child adoptions and foster care.

The latest is Republic Act 11642, the “Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act,” which was signed on Jan. 6 last year. It amended RA 8043, the Inter-Country Adoption Act of 1995, and four other subsequent laws.

After RA 8043 was passed, a foreign couple I know still had a tough time taking to their country a baby boy abandoned in a church. They were told that the baby was the result of an extramarital affair and the biological mother didn’t want her husband, an overseas worker, to find out about it upon his return to Manila.

The baby was eventually brought out of the country and, as far as I know, is now thriving in his adopted land. He has never visited the Philippines.

*      *      *

I thought of the adopted kids last week after seeing those abandoned children, from toddlers to teenagers, weeping and clinging to the adults at the privately run Gentle Hands orphanage in Quezon City.

Social welfare personnel had entered the orphanage last Monday and rounded up 123 children (other reports said there were 149). The kids were transferred to three government-run facilities.

The Canadian operator of the orphanage, Charity Graff, said no notice was given and they were not accorded due process in addressing the declared reasons for taking the children away from the facility.

Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) officials said the element of surprise was needed in a facility that was the subject of complaints from parents in the US who had adopted children from Gentle Hands. The kids had reportedly exhibited “disruptive behavior” toward the adoptive parents.

A Filipina mother who left her son in the care of Gentle Hands for a month while she prepared to give birth to a second baby also sought DSWD help after she failed to get back the boy. The DSWD said Gentle Hands demanded proof that the mother was capable of caring for both the first child and the newborn.

On Friday, the Bureau of Fire Protection district office in Quezon City revoked the fire safety certificate issued to Gentle Hands Inc., citing several red flags that put its wards at risk.

One doesn’t go into social work to oppress people, and our government agencies deserve the presumption of regularity. Also, about 30 people, 25 of them children, died when an orphanage in Paco, Manila housed in an 85-year-old structure was destroyed in a fire in December 1998.

So we can regard the incident at Gentle Hands as a well-meaning move to rescue abandoned children from less-than-ideal circumstances.

On the other hand, it looked like a raid and seizure of children from familiar surroundings. From video footage, those weeping children hugging orphanage employees looked scared and deeply unhappy about being separated and taken away to three state-run facilities.

Because of the way the operation was carried out, I thought the Gentle Hands management would face serious charges such as child abuse, trafficking or sexual exploitation. But there were no such charges mentioned.

*      *      *

Adoption is a two-way affair. Children, especially the older ones who have been traumatized by previous abuse, don’t always get along with their adoptive parents, and it’s not unusual for such kids to be returned to an orphanage.

This is among the reasons why formal adoption is quite rare in the Philippines. Another disincentive is the possibility that the biological parents would one day want to get the child back.

Older generations of Filipinos believed adopting children brought good luck, but I don’t think this belief is still around.

Gentle Hands said it would take back its former wards if the adoptive parents in the US are unhappy with the children.

But the orphanage personnel have a point in warning that the way the children were suddenly taken to other facilities likely caused distress especially among those who are grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder arising from previous abuse, neglect or abandonment.

Also, considering the resources of the government, let’s hope the facilities where the 123 children were taken are in fact better than Gentle Hands. Government-run facilities are notorious for overcrowding, unsanitary surroundings and fire safety violations. Even the fire-gutted Manila Central Post Office lacked water sprinklers and fire alarms.

The government, because of its limited resources, should in fact move to encourage more private sector participation in social work, under reasonable state regulation, with the rules clear and compliance-friendly. After all, both the state and private sector workers profess to have children’s welfare foremost in mind.

Seeing all the street people and beggars all over Metro Manila, it’s clear that the state is hard-pressed to care for abandoned or abused children and the elderly as well as battered women and persons with disabilities. There are so many of these unfortunate folks, and they can use any help they can get.