Sick of bribery in Philippines Adoption

I must say, that I have never heard of anyone using bribery for adoption from the Philippines. ICAB follows strict rules, and that is why they will ONLY adopt through an ICAB certified adoption agency -- no independant lawyers, social workers, or people who say they can do it. I have, however, heard of many lawyers, and agencies who are not ICAB certified, who have taken peoples money, and then failed to get the adoption through. I am so sorry for your bad experience with all of this. Hope things go better for you. Jen

I hope so for the better future of the country of the Philippines. Thanks for your kind reply.

larryman- so sorry to hear you are getting this kind of information. We agree with Orphanagemom , ICAB does everything it can to assure that the families that are applying to adopt follow a specific set of rules and regulations. there is no evidence as far as we have ever heard of bribery to get things done sooner, better etc. THere ARE dishonest agencies, lawyers etc. We live in B.C. and adopted twice in the Philippines, and we were never approached with this kind of offer, If you are dealing with an ICAB approved agency-then you are doing all the right things. We are dear friends with people in Cebu who have been running a shelter for abandoned children for 20 years, and they have helped match and place over 500 children, and never have they ever heard of these things happening. Keep the faith, and be assured you do not have to bribe anyone to get a child! Corruption occurs in ALL COUNTRIES.... not just third world countries. pam

Hi, It's rather common for positions in Government to being entrepreneurial. ICAB has a history of being the exception to this stereotype to the point that looking clean actually delays the process and is really part of the problem. In fact looking clean has become more the norm in many agencies in the Philippines. A word of caution based on your post. If your own people are going to you and saying the process is being held up and tell you P5,000 will fix it, etc. then this typically this puts your people as suspect. Verify directly and don't trust what is relayed to you. It is actually more common for it to be one of your own rather than the front processors of an agency taking bribes. Even with family members. I am a very trusting person so it actually took me a few years to get the hang of it. BTW: Some agencies do actually have a fast line fee and it's not a bribe. HTH, Johnny

Thanks for your post. Of course no one wish to involve in taking bribe. All adoption agencies in Canada are very strictly screened by the provincial government. What really frustrated us is that some people in the Philippines accept bribery is a way of life.

Please don't interpret my post as one who has gained savvy into taking bribes. The opposite is true and I have been critized for not taking the easy way out because sometimes it's goes against the grain. "Getting the hang of it" means identifing those who would try to take advantage of me.

Of course not. The many bribery cases in the Philippines reminds me of my teenage years in Hong Kong in the early 70's where bribery and corruption is a way of life and the only way to get assistance from working class to high governments officials with the worse coming from the police chief commissionor of Royal Hong Kong police. Not until the government set up a special body called Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) can fairness slowly begin to surface.

We are fortunate that nobody actually come to approach us for money to fix our adoption. That person has to first report to ICAB about the detail of his/her bribe first before coming to us. Any adoption in the Philippines involving children to be adopted abroad has to FIRST report to ICAB before you do anything. This is a very important first step but unfortunately many local Pinoys include some local and even regional social workers working at the DSWD are not totally aware of this procedure. In our case, a local social worker actually approach our family in the Philippines with an abandoned baby and even ask us to look after him and to adopt him knowing that we can afford to offer that child a better life abroad and we are ICAB qualified and have an approved local agency acting for us. We did question her once again if it can be done knowing the fact that ICAB needs to be consulted first before doing anything and she did say to us YES. Even a rep from the regional DSWD say to us that we have no problem in adopting the abandoned child. When we all appraoch a rep from ICAB, the rep told us that it is not according to the guideline of ICAB and we have to let the child go. A even more frustrated experience coming from that regional social worker that she told my wife why my wife push me into this adoption ? This is something most uncall of, the decision to adopt in our case is a joint and mutual decision. Nobody is forcing anyone into any act. We did consult their professional opinion and they all say we will not have any problem adopting the child. This tells you that many locals in the Philippines think that everybody is free to adopt and free to bring any adopted child abroad if you have a good lawyer who know all the proceedings. But sadly most lawyers in the Philippines fail to realise that ICAB is the governing body who need to be address first before any further processing for child adoption.Even our lawyer, he did all the papers for local adoption and court hearing without first reporting to ICAB. If ICAB is the ultimate authority to any adoption case involving children to be adopted abroad, then ICAB should put a complete STOP to all Pinoys from using their own lawyers for any adoption process for this duplicates the costs of the adoptive parents rather than giving them option to hire their lawyer and go through the court proceedings. I strongly advise everybody that if you are seriously about adopting in the Philippines. Please give your greatest respect to ICAB and address to them via your agency first or if you are in the Philippines and do not have n agency acting for you yet, go there directly and to fully consult them what exactly are the procedure to follow before paying money to the lawyers for ICAB will repeat what your lawyer did in their processing and you are doubling your efforts in your adoption.

There is a rumour come to us that there is an american woman who pay P100,000 some years ago to a local Filipino family and she successfully bring the child abroad to the United State. After this occurance, the whole town got exited and due to the many worse poverty that exist in that town, people from there are asking people interested in adopting their own children for the equivalent amount. I do not want to disclose the name of the town for obvious reason.

My posting on bribery has attracted a lot of viewers. To all of your disappointment the real culprits on all the corruptions and bribery cases cannot be positively identified because they are taking bribe to crack down those whole take bribe.