The Department of Social Welfare and Development or DSWD has been performing an active role in adoption. In fact, DSWD issues one of the most important certifications as prerequisite for adoption. Under Republic Act 9523, the state requires for the CDCLAA or Certificate Declaring the Child as Legally Available for Adoption as an essential requirement for adoption proceedings.

This is to ensure that all possible actions to help the children be reintegrated with their families or closest relatives, and other psychosocial interventions, were done prior their clearance to be legally adopted.

From January 1 to June 4, 2019 alone, DSWD Region 3 has already endorsed a total of 19 children for legal adoption. 16 of these children were placed through local adoption while 3 were endorsed for inter-regional/inter-country adoptions.

Their distribution as to province of origin as follows:

Province of Origin	Number of Children Endorsed for Local Adoption	Number of Children Endorsed for Inter-regional/inter-country Adoption
Zambales	5	2
Bulacan	4	0
Pampanga	3	1
Nueva Ecija	2	0
Aurora	1	0
Tarlac	1	0
Bataan	0	0

Out of a total 19 endorsements, 10 of them are male and 9 are female. Their age ranges from 1 year and 3 months to 15 years old.

Cherry Mendoza, an adoptive parent, said that she is thankful to the department for facilitating the adoption process, “these shelters are a blessing both for the adopted kids and adoptive parents,” she said.

Because of the continuous hard-work of the region, DSWD Region 3 has issued a total of 557 CDCLAA from 2009 to June 2019. 47 children are expected  to be presented in Local Matching Conference for Adoption.

While the department and other non-governmental residential care facilities provide the basic needs of children who are available for adoption, it is always better if they have a family they can call their own. For more information on legal adoption, visit https://adoption.dswd.gov.ph/.