LA TRINIDAD, Benguet (PIA) -- The Regional Alternative for Child Care Office (RACCO) Cordillera continues to advocate legal adoption and alternative child care in the region.
 
Kathlyn Aquino of RACCO Cordillera said there is a significant increase in applications for adoption in the Cordillera region with the implementation of Republic Act No. 11642 also known as the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act.
 
Aquino said the legal process of adoption and alternative health care is usually ignored especially in the Cordillera not only because of its complicated and expensive nature, but also because of the customs of its people.
 
However, through RA 11642, the judicial process of adoption has became an administrative process, which makes domestic administrative adoption proceedings and other services for alternative child care simpler, inexpensive, and centralized.
 
This is through the National Authority for Child Care (NACC), which is the quasi-judicial agency attached to the Department of Social Welfare and Development that takes all the duties, functions, and responsibilities of all government agencies relating to alternative health care, Aquino added.

In further promoting alternative child care in the region as well as to inform the public of the provisions of RA 11642, the NACC, through the RACCO Cordillera, and in collaboration with the Cordillera Career Development College-College of Social Work, organized a forum on Adoption and Alternative Child Care at the Tupay-an Gymnasium in Buyagan, Poblacion, La Trinidad, Benguet on April 24, 2024. 
 
Representatives from the 16 barangays of La Trinidad, along with faculty members and students of the Colleges of Social Work, Criminal Justice Education, and Health Education participated in the event. 

According to RACCO-CAR OIC Felisa Singlan, conducting the forum within the community serves as a very effective avenue for them to disseminate the new processes and requirements for alternative child care. 
 
“Ito 'yung gusto namin. Goal namin na sa mismong community level tayo bababa to advocate and promote this program that we are doing. At these grassroots level, sila ang nilalapitan ng mga tao at maa address nila kung may mag-iinquire sa kanila,” Singlan stated.
 
NACC representative Ma. Charisma Cid also assured that the collective effort of the participants, which include the barangay LGUs, faculties, and students can inspire hope, ignite needs, and create a better future for children.   
 
RA 11642 was enacted on January 6, 2022, and promptly came into force on January 22, 2022.

The NACC-RACCO cpntinues as its efforts to enact legal adoption and alternative child care, having already extended its reach to the provinces of  Apayao, Ifugao, Kalinga, and Benguet . The  broader objective is to extend their advocacy to encompass additional provinces within the Cordillera region. (DEG-PIA CAR with Marvilyn Lokines, BSU Intern) (Photos: BSU Interns)