Philippine Case Study: "The Best Interest of Children" and the Parental Authority

 

Ritsuko Otani

In the preamble to “the Convention of Children’s Rights”, it states the importance of family and family care such as “family is a fundamental unit of the society”, “ a natural environment for the children’s growth and welfare” and also “children have a right to grow up in a loving and understanding familial environment”. In the main text, it describes the right of children to have parents, the right to be brought up in home, as well as the right to receive special protection and education. According to the Civil Code, “a person who exercises parental power has the right and incurs the duty of providing for the custody and of educating the child”. In order to secure the best interest of children, it is desirable to have a home where parental authority is properly exercised.

If the person in parental authority cannot exercise his/her parental authority appropriately for some reason, in the first step, we will try to support the person in parental authority as much as possible. But if the person in parental authority still has difficulties to raise children, we have to consider another approach to protect the right of children. The involvement varies by the age of the children and it is necessary to have special care towards the infants because it is considered to be the most important period. Especially the infants acknowledge the adults who take care of them and have emotional relationship as their own parents.

For the children to grow normally, it is important to have continuous emotional relationship, continuous influence of the environment as well as stable relationship with the outside. Recently, the “Permanency Plan” (continuous, permanent, and universal) for the nurturer and the children are beginning to be considered important. world widely.

Another important problem is the time of sense of the children. For them if the continuous relationship with the adults is interrupted, it will cause a great effect on them even if it is a very short period. If they cannot recover the parent-child relationship, it is necessary for us to consider their sense of time and respond as quickly as we can. In order to deal with the above, it is necessary for us to complete the investigation and selection of the prospective adoptive parents beforehand. These procedures are being done at ISSJ all the time.

Case: Intercountry Adoption of a Filipino Child

One day, we received a call from a Child Guidance Center(CGC) regarding a Filipino who was pregnant and wanted to relinquish her child for adoption. The social workers from ISSJ went to see her for more detailed information.

The woman, Ms. A, was accompanied by a staff of the CGC. She was a Filipina in her twenties with long hair and looked much younger than her age. She has been living in Japan for 5 years with legal status of residence but could not speak Japanese. fluently.

Therefore, a Filipina social workers of ISSJ interviewed her in Tagalog. According to Ms. A, she used to date a Filipino, who was the father of the child to be born. When she told him about her pregnancy, he left her and his whereabouts was unknown. Since she was a Catholic, abortion was prohibited and so she decided to deliver the child. However, unable to raise the child by herself, she thought about releasing the child to a family that would take good care of the child.

Japanese and Filipino Social workers interviewed Ms. A for a number of times. The workers discussed about whether natural mother was able to raise the child with the support of her family in the Philippines or not and also about placing the mother and the child in a mother’s home. Ms. A told the social workers that she had not informed her parents about her pregnancy and that they could not give her any support because they were in economically difficult situation. Also, Ms. A was sending almost all of her earnings to her family in the Philippines. The workers found out that it would be impossible for her to raise the child in such situation. Therefore, the workers assisted her to register the childbirth, confirming her intension for the adoption. The workers came to a conclusion that it was for the best interest of the child to be adopted because Ms. A’s intension did not change.

Ms. A, who wais the only parent with parental authority signed the “Deed of Voluntary Commitment (DVC)” in front of the attorney of the Philippine Embassy according to the Adoption Law of the Philippines. It is a written consent to adoption by biological mother, to transfer her parental authority to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) of the Philippines. The workers explained her that even after signing the DVC, the biological mother still had the chance to cancel the adoption within 6 months but after 6 months period DVC would become valid. Ms. A’s intension did not change and the DVC became legally valid.

Since the child’s nationality was Philippine, ISSJ sent detailed report and the supporting documents of the child to DSWD. DSWD examined the possibility of adoption within the Philippines but there was no eligible adoptive parents for the child and therefore, the workers checked the possibility of adoption through Intercountry Adoption Board(ICAB). As a result, a Canadian couple living in Japan, who applied for adoption in ICAB through ISSJ was chosen as child’s adoptive parents. The child was matched with them and eventually the child was placed at their home. The adoption was legally completed through a Canadian court where the adoptive parents was residing. The child’s Amended Birth Certificate was acquired and now the child lives happily with the new family.

(This program was subsidized by Japan Keirin Association)

Having read the above case study, It is found that the ISSJ social workers tried to interview Ms. A many times and checked whether it would be possible for her to bring the child up by herself. Then the workers confirmed her intension regarding the adoption. When the child is born, biological mother automatically receives the parental authority but it is not easy to transfer parental authority without proper reason and procedures. If it is necessary the ISSJ will help the transference of parental authority of the biological mother for the purpose of adoption to DSWD, the governmental organization. Also the workers will explain to the biological mother that she is given 6 months for reconsideration so that she will be able to confirm her intention. Then as a next step, ISSJ seeks the possibility of the child’s adoption in the Philippines. However, the suitable adoptive parents were not found and as the result the adoption by a Canadian couple living in Japan was completed through the collaboration of ICAB and ISSJ. During this time, ISSJ workers tried their best to support the biological mother for the registration of childbirth, confirmation of child’s nationality and etc., as well as to help the adoptive parents and the adoptive child to establish a new parents-child relationship for the best interest of the child.

In any country, there are regulations on parental authority by law. (In Japan, Civil Code and in the Philippines, the Family Code.) Parental authority is a right for the parents toward children and at the same time, a duty. It is not correct to interpret the parental authority as only the right given to the parents. Sometimes it happens that a person with parental authority renounces his/her duty but claims his/her right as parent. This will bring a long institutionalization of children, especially in Japan involving nationality problems. Also there are cases where overstaying biological mothers disappear leaving babies behind after childbirth. Those children are placed in baby homes for care. However, when those mothers are exposed, they are deported from Japan with their children. The children are forced to cut the relationship with the nurturer and cannot help but to be repatriated to their mothers’ homeland. In some cases, children for the first time meet their mothers who have no strong intention of raising their own children. From this example, we need to think again whether is is for the best interest of children or not.