Senate OKs bill protecting deserted, abandoned children on 3rd reading

The Senate on Monday approved on third and final reading a bill that will protect the rights and welfare of abandoned and deserted children.

Voting 23-0-0, the senators approved Senate Bill 2233, which presumes a foundling a natural-born Filipino, granting them the rights and protection under Philippine laws.

Under SB 2233, a foundling who is found in the Philippines or the country’s embassies, consulates, and territories, shall be presumed a natural-born Filipino citizen.

The measure also seeks to establish the right of a foundling to government programs and services, such as registration, facilitation of documents for adoption, education, protection, nourishment, care, among others.

Citing the official date of the Philippine Statistics Authority, Senator Risa Hontiveros, sponsor of the measure, said there are at least  6,580 certificates of Foundling as of December 2021.

There are 1,473 foundlings who are legally available for adoption from 2009 to October 2021 based on the data of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

SB 2233 also provides a “Safe Haven” concept wherein infants will be protected from further harm when their biological parents leave them in unsafe places.

“The act of parents should not be prejudicial to the welfare of the child. The parents will be given immunity from lawsuit when he or she hands over an infant thirty days old and younger to ‘safe haven’ institutions such as licensed child care or placing agency, health care facilities or DSWD residential care centers,” she said in a statement.

Hontiveros then urged the immediate enactment of the bill to recognize the government's duty to provide protection to every child, regardless of his or her status or circumstances of birth. — BM, GMA News