THE Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday approved the release of a revised guidelines on the Rule on Adoption in light of the enactment of Republic Act No. 11642, or the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act

This was after the high court adopted the recommendations of the Committee on Family Courts and Juvenile Concerns under then senior associate justice estela M. Perlas-Bernabe.

The committee’s recommendations are as follows:

1) Upon effectivity of RA 11642, courts may no longer receive or accept petitions for domestic adoption. Jurisdiction over domestic adoption cases shall now be with the newly created National Authority for Child Care (NACC), a quasi-judicial agency attached to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

2) Adoptions proceedings are now administrative

3) Petitioners have the option to immediately withdraw judicial petitions for domestic adoption pending in court, regardless of the stage of the proceedings. Otherwise, the courts shall continue to hear and decide such petitions.

4) The courts shall give petitioners time to manifest their intent to withdraw. If petitioners fail to notify the court within the set period, they are considered to have waived the option to withdraw their petitions.

5) Petitioners, and their respective counsels, who avail of the benefits of RA 11642 without first withdrawing their pending petitions before the courts shall be sanctioned under the Rules of Court.

6) Domestic adoption provisions in the Rule on Adoption are now rendered ineffective except for pending domestic cases before the courts not withdrawn by petitioners.

7) Rescission of adoption under Section 47 of RA 11642 covers judicial adoptions.

8) Inter-country adoption petitions pending before the courts pursuant to Part B of the Rule on Adoption shall be dismissed.

9) All courts are required to submit to the Office of the Court Administrator a list and status report of all pending adoption cases, including archived cases.

RA 11642 took effect on January 28, 2022 with the goal of making domestic adoption proceedings simpler and less costly. The law also seeks to streamline alternative child care services.