‘Disruptive behavior’ seen in Gentle Hands’ wards

AUTHORITIES reported multiple incidence of “disruptive behavior” in children who were adopted through the orphanage that was shut down on Monday in Quezon City.

National Authority for Child Care (NACC) Executive Director Janella Ejercito Estrada said they tracked at least three instances involving children who were wards of the Gentle Hands Inc. in Project 4, Quezon City.

NACC is an attached agency of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

“For Child A, actually, this child is very disturbed. I personally experienced that because this child went to our office in NACC, and the incident was relayed to me by the adoptive parents. The child locked the adoptive father in the bathroom for one to two hours. In another instance, the child threw the food and stepped on it,” Estrada said.

“Then followed Child B, who attempted to stab the adoptive parents not once, but five times,” she added.

“Then there’s Child C, who I can’t talk about because of an ongoing investigation. Adoptive parents have previously filed complaints with the US State Department and The Hague Convention,” Estrada said.

Estrada expressed concern that Child B, who is now in the United States, will be brought back to the Philippines this week to examine the child’s mental health.

Estrada said the disruption cases are the result of “poor preparation of the children — mentally, physically and emotionally.”

After receiving NACC’s report, Social Welfare Secretary Rexlon “Rex” Gatchalian said that the DSWD was currently retooling its programs and services, including centers and residential care facilities (CRCFs) and social welfare and development agencies (SWDAs), which play important roles in preparing children for adoption, in order to avoid disruption cases.

“[Undersecretary] Janella is pointing out that there seems to be a pattern of disruptive behavior for children who are being placed for adoption from this facility. We will look at the overall licensing issues of Gentle Hands and not just Gentle Hands,” Gatchalian said.

“All of these are being looked into as we do our general program review for everything,” he added.

Gatchalian said the DSWD continues to enhance its systems and procedures, as well as those of its attached and supervised organizations, in order to provide excellent services to its clients.