Advertisements
Glad to know that you are also from BC. Are you from Vancouver ? My wife and I are from Vancouver. We would like to inform you that for our adoption, we initially went to the Philippines Consulate in Vancouver to enquire about adopting from the Philippines. Their consul assistance inform both of us that all we need is a good lawyer and he can do everything and we do not require local agency. We later check with a local agency and also with ICAB website that a local agency is required where is applicant 's country is resided and approval is do be done by ICAB. The Philippines consulate in Vancouver got confuse when we met with them later on to further discuss adoption from the Philippines. They pull out two agnecy from Quebec certified by ICAB to us for reference but we live in BC, the commincation channel is done through the Ministry of Children and Family in Victoria BC first then to our local agency. We have e-mail the Philippines Consulate consul Ceballos herself about the proper proceedings. It seems to us that they do not quite understand the role of ICAB in the Philippines plays in the international adoption. Maybe you can assist them also.
Also I would like to inform you that quite a number of Pinoys we met , acquaintance , friends, and relative do not understand the role of ICAB in local and inter country adoption. Most of them think that a good and reliable lawyer can do everything without further worry. We share with them the process we went through with ICAB and our local agency and all thebinformations and ICAB seems to be new to all of them.
About this issue of bribery. It actually come from our lawyer who very openly said to us without any discret that if we want to get things done faster , we just need to give the regional social worker handling our child study report some money and have it done faster to timely present the report to ICAB. He said it without any kind of reserves and he has been successfully petition for many adoption cases locally for kids to go abroad. It is said for us to find out from many people we come across with the same saying that "Money talks well in the Philippines". This is not our exaggeration or something bitter coming out from our adoption experience. It is what we were told crystal clearly from locals as well as advices coming from them.
The experiences my wife do not fell comfortable at ICAB is that the representative handling our adoption case said to her ," I am quite surprise to see that your husband let you come to the Philippines to come for your adoption case." This to us is most puzzling. Does this representative know me personally well enough for her to talk to my wife in such manner or from my wife perspective, does this representative from ICAB has a crash on my husband already before even looking at him.We find that this kind of remark should not be coming from institution like ICAB. Also during the conversation between my wife and that ICAB representative, my wife was told many times from her to listen to what I have to say in a commanding tone rather than what a professional will undertake.The attitude from this representative from ICAB is most unwelcome by all presence during the conversation, namely, the local and regioanl social workers working on our adoption and spouse from my in-law.We do not want to mention her name here for it may jaopadize our application if that person ego is hurt.
ICAB do have someone who value pride a lot more than compassion.
Like
Share
Thanks for the reply. I have discovered the real reason why there are feel adoptions from the Philippines. The tragedy of 911 has quite a significant shake on all governments foreign policy especially on migration but this is relatively minor compare to the astronomical backlog The Intercountry Adoption Board is facing at this time. Now they are processing the 2003 applications on both inter country and relative adoptions. I do not know exactly when about in the time frame of the 2003 applications they are working on at the moment but my wife and I can find out directly from them when we are heading to the Philippines this year.We had our relative adoption application submitted in August 2004. It looks like we will have to wait for about a year before our turn.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts as an adoptee. Your thoughts and experience is most valuable to us as adoptive parents.
Advertisements
By reading the reply to Larry Man from Anonymous, if domestic adoption is considered taboo and not accepted by the community, WHY ON EARTH DID THE PHILIPPINES GOVERNMENT ALLOW ADOPTION TO TAKE PLACE IN THE PHILIPPINES AND WHAT'S THE POINT OF SETTING UP ICAB TO DEAL WITH INTER COUNTRY AND RELATIVE ADOPTIONS.If domestic adoption is considered taboo, there should be A COMPLETE NO to any adoption to take place in the philippines. It does not make any sense at all !
Sorry, but this is way off.
Someone here would needs to spend a lot more time in the Philippines to understand how Filipino's care about children and family values all around. Adoption is common and mostly not formalized. Partly because of the costs involved. A few hundred pesos in the local municipality or to the nurse and clinic doctor and records are fixed. Nobody knows the child is adopted outside the circle of confidence. This is the Filipino way. As Metro Manila grows so does its Government policies trying to correct the way things get done but this practice continues because people know people and it's a way to save money and get the insurance coverage. The Philippines has a very poor economy.
Domestic Adoption is not considered "Taboo". In fact Filipinos have so much more compassion about its children that its policies are over protective. 'With good reason I might add' this is reflective in ICAB's policy making.
One of the basic rules in ICAB's policy is to make all possible efforts to find a Filipino family for its children. It's only children that are not place able domestically that are actually get qualified by ICAB. So if ICAB is doing what it is charged to do, (basic rule) then the number of Intercountry adoptions should actually go down. I'm sure that there are many factors that cause the number to go up and it's not a direct result of the agencies inability to be successful with this basic rule. Example: The best interest of the child comes to mind.
Just because you were adopted from the Philippines, it doesn't make you an authority on Philippine culture nor does it make you an expert on the adoption process because you can read. The people with comprehension about the process are the social workers trying to place the children. It doesn't come from an analysis of the numbers based on assumptions from world events.
'4th Degree relation'
If not with in the '4th Degree of relation' It most like will take a denial for Larryman to realize that his first advise to get a Lawyer that knows his stuff is most likely the best move for his situation. Philippine Law (ICAB Policy) is tough to deal with on your own and you don't have to wait a year (and shouldn't) to get the ball rolling. What you need to understand is Immigration policy regarding Intercountry adoptions/domestic adoption from the Philippines in BC. Philippine Law is the same no mater what country you are from.
HTH,
Johnny
I just wish that ICAB would allow international agencies to list that there is a possibility that adoptions could take up to 2 years. We were told that they match within a year and that they want to keep that timeline. We waited a really long time and might have selected a different country had we known that it takes up to 2 years from approval.
Advertisements
It was a knee-jurk reaction on my part, the comment on being an expert was undeserved. I should have re-read your post before replying. It was not my intention to offend, It just set me off.
Johnny
To the readers of this thread. I do not encourge the "Philippines way". It will get you into trouble. Follow the rules.
Philippines way means different things to different people in the Philippines. There are no general rules to classified what is "Philippines Way" because of the diversity of races and cultures and the many different spoken dialects that exists.There is only one focus where all the applications of adoption rules is leading to, that is, the focus is on the adoptee's best interest and that universal best interest for the adoptee is to have a caring family who laid a good solid foundation stone for the growth of the adoptee in response to the love and responsibility to himself or herself , family, and society.
You know what ! Philippines American and Enchic Ways are all pretty well the same. They all show up late for parties (In fact it is pretty well universal, in France, Britain, Germany, Africa, Antartic, because common beliefs to all human beings on this planet,the later you show up at the party, the more exiting the party will become and the party will last longer), they all talk with their lips (Can any human being live without lips ?), surpise to some of you know what adobo is. Filipinos adopted enchic (Filipinos call chinese people) methodology of cooking soya sauce chicken and called it chicken adobo. Another chinese word adopted into the Tagalog Dictionary, Pansit or more commonly know in the western world Chow Mein. The president of the United States and all the high profile leaders in the world eat pansit, the most prestigious type to their favorite. To say it is sarcasm to people west of the Hudson river is lots of nonsense and unjustified.MacDonald is going to introduce chinese chicken into their non fat diet and call it Ameridobo to booster their consecutive 3 quarters operating loss to Starbucks.
Advertisements
Those of you who has been to Hong Kong probably in the good old days of the 1960s and 1970s otr even the 1990's will rpobably come across some street hawkers selling STINKY TOFU. They are literatly called stinky tofu because it really smells when it is cooked with the traditional ingredients added combined with the fermentation process of the Tofu itself. It smell bad but IT TASTE ABSOLUTELY excellent. It melt in your mouth and trigger you have have more and more. Many tourists (the more adventurous one) are absolutely addicted to it. Laterly because of the increasing population and continuous polutionof the environment, the government put up some restriction on those street hawkers selling stinky tofu.
Stinky Tofu has its origin from Shanghai China. There are increasing number of cantonese speaking local selling Stinky Tofu and they are being criticise for not speakimg cantonese with shanghainese accent.This citicism apparently (believe it or not) comes from the British who are well integrated into the Chinese society of Hong Kong.
There are many culture eats with their hands ? How often we find people eating McDonald's fries and burgers with plastic forks and knifes and not with their hands ? How do American eat New York Fries ? Of course , with their hands.
Food taste most delicious if eat with hands. This is why God make us a pair of hands.
My Filipinas wife and I live west of the Hudson river in Vancouver Canada. We have chicken adobo, chinese soya chicken, pansit and chow mein. Though we are not party goers, but most Filipinos, Latinos, White Caucasion, Carribbeanite, European, Afro American, even Canada Fist Nation in our community and others love to party all nights and usually show up VERY VERY LATE at party. They prefer to speak with their lips because they do not want to catch bugs or germs for all these deceases and viruses from the atmosphere. Adobo is becoming a national dish in our part of the world after a combined revolutionary development from the white causasion culture, chinese culture and Filipino culture.Adobo is in every menu of every restaurant in town.Without adobo, your business cannot survive.
The sinky tofu from Hong Kong has yet to pass the test of environmental sensitivity.
Advertisements
You know what ? You make me crave for chicken adobo. I have to phone my wife at home and ask her to have it ready for me for dinner tonight ! I will tell her to be careful not to attract the attention of the enitre neighbourhood, otherwise, we will have visitors lining up with their plates and utensiles outside our doorstep!
My wife still cannot get use to the smell of stinky tofu after all these years of marriage but her brother and sisters absolutely love it.