Full Title
AN ACT TO CONFER CERTAIN POWERS UPON INSTITUTIONS FOR THE CARE OF ORPHAN, HOMELESS, NEGLECTED, OR ABUSED CHILDREN.
Date of Approval
March 15, 1923

Other Details

Issuance Category
Legislative Issuance Type
Major Topic

Official Gazette

Official Gazette Source
Official Gazette vol. 21 no. 79 page 1375 (7/3/1923)

Full Text of Issuance

[ Act No. 3094, March 16, 1923 ]

AN ACT TO CONFER CERTAIN POWERS UPON INSTITUTIONS FOR THE CARE OF ORPHAN, HOMELESS, NEGLECTED, OR ABUSED CHILDREN

 

Be it enacted  by  the Senate  and House  of Representatives of the Philippines in Legislature assembled and  by the authority  of the same:

SECTION  1.  Any  public institution or any benevolent  or charitable society incorporated under the laws  of the Philippine Islands and duly authorized therefor by the Secretary of the Interior, through  the  Public  Welfare Commissioner, having  for its  object the  receiving,  aiding,  caring  for, placing  out for adoption and consenting to adoption  or improving the condition of orphan, homeless, neglected,  or abused  children,  whose teachings  are not  contrary  to the Christian  principles  of  morality,  shall have authority  to receive, control, train, educate, aid, care for, dispose of, place out for  adoption and  consent to the adoption of any  child under eighteen years  of  age. when the father and mother or  person  or  persons legally entitled to act  as guardian  of such child shall, in writing, surrender it to the charge and custody of such institution or society, and the person of the child shall thereafter be in the legal custody of said institution or  society for the purposes herein stated:  Provided, That in case  of the death or legal incapacity of the  father, or his abandonment of the child for the period of two years or more, the mother alone shall have the authority to make such surrender, and in the case of the death or legal  incapacity of the  mother,  or  her abandonment of the child for said period, the father alone shall have authority to make such surrender of  such a child.

SEC.  2.  When  any child shall have been surrendered in accordance with the preceding section and such child  shall have been accepted by such institution or society, the rights of its natural parents,  guardian of its person, if any, or other custodian shall cease,  and such institution or society, while authorized as provided for in section one of this Act, shall  be  entitled to  the custody and control of such child during; its minority,  and shall have authority to care  for, educate,  train, and place it out temporarily or for adoption in a  .suitable home  and to consent to its adoption under the laws of the Philippine Islands in such manner as shall best secure its welfare.

SEC. 3. It shall  be unlawful for any child so surrendered or committed without reasonable cause therefor to leave the person,  institution, or society,  or for any person to induce or attempt to induce a child to leave such person, institution,  or  society who has the care, custody, and control of such  child as provided herein.   Any violation of this  section shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by a fine not exceeding two thousand pesos, or both  such fine  and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court: Provided,  however,  That any  foreigner violating this section may also, upon recommendation,  be subject to deportation: Provided, further, That in the interpretation' of this section, the provisions of section two of this Act shall be considered.

SEC. 4. When the parents of any minor are  dead, or by- reason of long absence or legal or physical disability have abandoned it, or cannot support it through vagrancy,  negligence,  or misconduct, or neglect, or refuse to support it, or unlawfully beat  or  otherwise habitually maltreat it, or cause or allow it to engage in  common begging, or to commit  offenses against the law,  the Court of First  Instance of the province in which the parents reside or the child is found, upon petition filed by some reputable resident of the province, or by any benevolent or charitable association of any of said provinces, may issue an order requiring  such parents  to  show cause, or,  if  the parents are dead or not found in the province, requiring the fiscal of the province to show cause, at a time and place  fixed in the order,  why the child should not be taken from its parents, if living; and if upon  the hearing it appears that the allegations  of the petition  are true,  and that it is for the best interest of the child, the court  may  make an order taking  it  from its parents, if living,  and committing it to any suitable orphan asylum,  children's home, benevolent or charitable association, or benevolent society or person, to be ultimately placed, by adoption or otherwise, in a home found for it by  such asylum,  children's home, benevolent or charitable association, society or person, subject  to the general supervision of  the  Public Welfare Commissioner and  the rules  and regulations prescribed by  said  officer,  with the  approval of the Secretary of the Interior.   No bond shall be required in such  cases: Provided, That  the Secretary of the Interior shall from  time to time require a report on the conditions of children in the care of such institution, whether living within or outside  the same.

SEC.  5. This Act shall take  effect on its approval.

Approved, March 16, 1923.

 

 

 

Source: Supreme Court E-Library