SENATOR Pia Cayetano on Friday welcomed the signing of a new law that creates a government body to handle the process of adoption.

Cayetano said that the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act or Republic Act 11642 will simplify and speed up the adoption process.

The law mandates the establishment of the National Authority for Child Care, which will exclusively handle all adoption, foster care, and other alternative child care cases, and will have its own personnel under the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

“The new law simplifies the country’s domestic adoption system by making it administrative in nature, and streamlining the processes and requirements,” Cayetano said.

“These reforms seek to speed up adoption proceedings while ensuring the best interest of the child. I know this law will save so many parents and children from the heartbreak of waiting and waiting for their adoption to be final,” she stressed.

Cayetano, an adoptive mother, is one of the co-authors and co-sponsors of the measure which was signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte on Jan. 6.

“I can now say that we have a comprehensive domestic administrative adoption law. I have renewed hope that prospective  parents won’t have to wait too long to bring a child into their loving arms, and for children without parents to find their forever family sooner,” she said.

The new law also penalizes adoption discrimination acts like labelling, shaming, and bullying, among others.