An Act Authorizing the Trustees or Directors of Asylums and Institutions where Poor Children are Maintained at Public Expense to Place Such Children in Charge of Suitable Persons and Providing for the Adoption of Such Children

July 8, 1907

ACT NO. 1670

AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE TRUSTEES OR DIRECTORS OF ASYLUMS AND INSTITUTIONS WHERE POOR CHILDREN ARE MAINTAINED AT PUBLIC EXPENSE TO PLACE SUCH CHILDREN IN CHARGE OF SUITABLE PERSONS AND PROVIDING FOR THE ADOPTION OF SUCH CHILDREN

SECTION 1. The board of trustees or directors of any asylum or institution in which poor children are cared for and maintained at public expense are hereby authorized, with the consent of the Director of Health, to place any orphan or other child so maintained therein whose parents are unknown, or being known are unable or unwilling to support such child, in charge of any suitable person who may desire to take such child and shall furnish satisfactory evidence of his ability suitably to maintain, care for, and educate such child.

SECTION 2. The entrusting of any child to a person as provided in the preceding section shall not constitute a legal adoption and shall not affect the civil status of such child or prejudice the right of any person entitled to its legal custody or guardianship.

SECTION 3. It shall be the duty of any person who shall take any poor child from an asylum or institution, as provided in section one of this Act, suitably to maintain, care for, and educate such child while in his custody. The Director of Health shall visit such child personally or by agent at least once every three months and make all needful inquiries as to its welfare.

SECTION 4. If the Director of Health shall find that any child so taken from any asylum or institution is not being properly maintained, cared for, and educated, or if the person with whom such child has been placed shall no longer desire to retain the custody thereof, the Director of Health shall again place the child in the asylum or institution from which it was taken.

SECTION 5. Upon the application of any person to the trustees or directors of any asylum or institution where poor children are maintained at public expense to adopt any child so maintained therein, it shall be the duty of such trustees or directors, with the approval of the Director of Health, to report the fact to the provincial fiscal, or in the city of Manila to the city attorney, and such official shall hereupon prepare the necessary adoption papers and present the matter to the proper court. The costs of such proceedings in court shall be de oficio.

SECTION 6. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred. CAIHTE

SECTION 7. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

ENACTED, July 8, 1907.