Parents with children through simulated births are encouraged to avail of the amnesty provided under Republic Act 11222 or the Simulated Birth Rectification Act of 2019, which will end in March 2029.

“Simulated is tampering or falsifying the document of the child, and that is the birth certificate,” said Regional Alternative Child Care Office Social Welfare Officer II Jeannie Lyn Casiple in an interview.

The 10-year amnesty allows a less costly adoption process because it will be done through administrative proceedings and not in courts.

The administrative adoption covers a non-relative child, a relative child within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity, those been considered and treated as a child since birth, those with a pending petition for cancellation of simulated birth in court, and other similar circumstances that may be determined by the secretary or executive director of the National Authority for Child Care.

Those eligible have to be under the custody of the petitioner for at least three years before March 29, 2019, their birth record was simulated before the law took effect, and has no existing registered or foundling certificate other than the simulated birth certificate.

“We only have less than six years remaining to avail of the law. This is only an amnesty provided by our government for couples or parents to give them a chance,” she added.

The petition with complete documents shall be filed with the local social welfare offices where the child currently resides, which in turn will submit to the Regional Alternative Child Care Office (RACCO)

Since 2020, the RACCO has received 18 petitions from Western Visayas, 15 were approved and three are in process.

OIC-RACC Officer Janice J. Brasileño, in a previous interview, said they have no way of knowing the magnitude of simulated births in Western Visayas unless there is an admission on the part of those who committed it or through the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) where their birth certificates are tagged as multiple registrations or entries.

The birth simulation will not only hold parents for criminal and administrative liabilities but will also include medical practitioners who affix their signatures to the certificate.

Atty. May Rago Castillo, information officer of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Western Visayas, in a previous forum said the law wants to ensure that the child knows his/her identity.

“That he or she is not misled as to their roots because it all boils down to the best interest of the child,” she said.

Those who are not eligible to avail of the amnesty can still take the option under Republic Act 11642 or the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act.

Birth simulation after March 2019 has to be canceled through a court petition. Before the adoption process can proceed, the child has to be registered first with the biological parents.Perla Lena/NA