Facebook pages selling babies down to 7 from 23

MEDIA FORUM. National Authority for Child Care Executive Director Janella Estrada answers queries in a media forum at the NACC office in Quezon City on Tuesday (June 11, 2024). The NACC is celebrating the Adoption and Alternative Child Care Week. (Photo: National Authority for Child Care/Facebook)

MANILA – The National Authority for Child Care (NACC) on Tuesday said coordination among concerned government agencies led to the reduction on the number of Facebook pages purportedly being used to sell babies.

NACC Executive Director and Undersecretary Janella Estrada said they are working with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to take down the illegal social media pages.

“Last week, we had a meeting with PNP and DICT, ‘yung CICC nila and WDCC. So from 23 pages, naging 7 na lang (their Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center and Women and Children Protection Center. So from 23 pages, these were reduced to seven),” Estrada said in a media forum at the NACC office in Quezon City.

Estrada confirmed the recent arrest in Catarman, Northern Samar of a mother who sold her children aged 1 and 2 to an undercover PNP agent for PHP30,000 each

The motheris now under police custody while her children are under care of the Lingap (Care) Center in Catarman.

Meanwhile, Estrada announced the holding of final two stops of the 1st National Congress on Adoption, and Alternative Child Care in Clark, Pampanga for the North and Central Luzon clusters, and Cebu City for the Visayas cluster.

The Pampanga and Cebu legs of the National Congress will be held on June 19 and 20, and June 26 and 27, respectively.

She said the congress serves as an avenue for the NACC to strengthen partnerships with local government units (LGUs) in the implementation of adoption, and alternative childcare programs and services at the grassroots level.

For the Philippine Foster Care Program, 29 LGUs have signed a memorandum of agreement with the NACC for the development of foster parents while 22 more are currently in process.

A total of 216 LGUs participated, with some 34 mayors on board in the Mindanao cluster and the Metro Manila and South Luzon clusters.

Estrada said these activities will boost the ongoing efforts of the NACC to promote legal adoption and combat illegal online adoption practices.

“The NACC is committed to safeguard and protect the rights and welfare of the most vulnerable Filipino children. We believe that these are the programs that help us in a big way,” Estrada said.

The NACC, a newly created quasi-judicial agency under the Department of Social Welfare and Development, assumed all duties related to alternative childcare and adoption from the Inter-Country Adoption Board and other agencies under Republic Act 11642 or the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act signed by former president Rodrigo R. Duterte on Jan. 6, 2022.

The NACC said 1,618 foster children were served from January to December 2023.

The NACC celebrates Adoption and Alternative Child Care Week every second week of June.