NACC: Over 8,000 children under care; 1,600 legally available for adoption

The National Authority for Child Care (NACC) reported Tuesday that more than 8,000 children are currently under the care of child-caring agencies nationwide, with over 1,600 already legally available for adoption.

“In our records, as of March 2026, there are 8,051 children admitted to various child-caring agencies,” NACC Operations and Services Director Imelda Ronda said in an interview on PTV Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon.

Ronda said the cases are categorized based on the children’s current status. 

Of the total, 5,547 children are up for reunification and may be returned to their families following a positive assessment of parental capability. 

Meanwhile, 1,302 children are currently under assessment, while 1,672 have already been issued a Certification Declaring a Child Legally Available for Adoption (CDCLAA).

With these figures, the NACC is focusing on strengthening its services, mechanisms, and processes for both external clients and internal operations to ensure more efficient and effective programs for children and families under alternative childcare.

“The strengthening system for every child is not just a slogan. It is a concrete approach of the NACC to ensure that no child is left behind in the process and that they are placed more quickly in safe and permanent families,” Ronda said.

She added that the agency continues to improve the entire system—from identifying children in need of families, processing their cases, to matching them with adoptive families—to ensure faster processing, better coordination, clearer monitoring, and a stronger focus on the best interest of the child.

The NACC official further emphasized that the program is not merely about policies but about improving the actual delivery of services experienced by children in the system.