DSWD helps woman get son back from orphanage

MANILA, Philippines — A woman was reunited with her 20-month-old son yesterday, months after Gentle Hands Inc. (GHI) orphanage refused to release him despite government endorsement, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said yesterday.

Call center agent Melanie Marzan sought the DSWD’s assistance to help her get her boy back after the orphanage refused to return him, Assistant Secretary Romel Lopez said.

Marzan’s plea “fell on deaf ears,” he added, noting that GHI, through executive director Charity Graff, “continued to illegally detain” the boy “for no justifiable and legal reason.”

In a press briefing yesterday, Marzon said she was forced to place her son with GHI for one month on Jan. 30 because she was about to give birth to her second child and she was looking for a qualified nanny since her housekeeper suddenly left.

She said that when she visited her son at the orphanage on Feb. 4, she was allowed only 10 minutes with him.

Marzan said she decided to get her son back, but GHI claimed she had to produce certifications from the DSWD and the local government unit (LGU) about her “parenting capability” and if she had family support she could depend on.

Lopez said the DSWD and the LGU issued the certificates but GHI still refused to release the boy to Marzan, prompting her to file a complaint with Malacañang’s Citizens’ Complaint Hotline.

Based on this complaint, the DSWD’s National Capital Region office sent a letter to Graff on March 28 but received no response.

Lopez said Graff’s refusal to release Marzan’s son runs counter to “Filipino values that place importance on families with young children not to be separated from their mothers and fathers.”

Graff is a Canadian who was issued a working visa by the Bureau of Immigration, he added.

Lopez pointed out that since there is no court order declaring Marzan unfit to be a parent, GHI “has no right to refuse her request for the return of her son.”

The DSWD is looking into two similar cases involving children in the temporary custody of GHI.

Fire certificate revoked

Meanwhile the DSWD said the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) Quezon City Fire District (QCFD) has revoked GHI’s fire safety inspection certificate following an inspection on May 24.

The DSWD asked the QCFD to conduct the inspection after the agency found that the orphanage did not comply with the minimum standards for residential facilities for children.

In a “notice to comply” dated May 25 sent by acting BFP district fire marshal Sr. Supt. Aristotle Banaga to Graff, he cited 14 “defects or deficiencies” that include having no secondary exit on the fourth floor; non-compliant design of the basketball court fire escape; no outside window or door in every sleeping room; insufficient width of the aisles, corridors and exits; no automatic detection and alarm system; no approved automatic sprinkler system; no emergency evacuation plan posted; failure to provide enclosure and protection off stairways, and failure to conduct emergency egress and relocation drills.