An institution promoting the adoption of orphaned children has asked the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) to stop the public showing of Warner Bros.’ Orphan because of the film’s “detrimental message.”

“The movie Orphan delivers a detrimental message about ‘waiting’ children in need of a ‘forever family’. The trailer was deemed so offensive to some communities in America that the line ‘It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own’ was removed,” the group said in a statement.

Adoptions advocate Kim Michelle Richardson (USA) said the movie’s tagline, “There is Something Wrong With Esther,” should be applied to the production company: “There Is Something Wrong With Warner Bros.”

Lawyer Gwen Pimentel-Gana, president of the Association of Child Caring Agencies of the Philippines (Accap), said the group’s member- agencies are “terribly offended and appalled by the movie’s negative story line featuring an orphan little girl character as the villain.”

“Maybe the MTRCB, before allowing movies like these, should be more sensitive to issues that affect the plight of orphaned, abandoned, neglected and dependent children,” Gana said.

Accap is the country’s leading network of residential care and pre-adoption service providers.

The Philippine adoption community is strongly united in expressing its displeasure and opposition to the showing of the movie Orphan, set to be shown in movie houses on July 29.

“It is insensitive and incorrect to portray orphan children in this manner and reinforces damaging stereotypes, which I fear will only harm children without families even more,” says Pimentel-Gana. “Furthermore, it is an insult to the positive and productive work that the adoption community, including Accap, the Department of Social Welfare and Development [DSWD] and Inter-country Adoption Board [Icab], does for Filipino orphans.”

On March 12 President Arroyo signed into law Republic Act 9523, known as “An Act Requiring the Certification of the DSWD to Declare a Child Legally Available for Adoption.”

This law not only provides shorter and simplified adoption procedures but also changes the nature of the proceedings from judicial to administrative.

“It is unimaginable that in the midst of such positive developments, a movie like Orphan would be allowed and much less patronized in the country,” added Marc Morris, Accap vice president for internal affairs.

The Philippine adoption community has been working extremely hard to improve the quality of residential care and processes to place children in permanent families.

From August 18 to 22, the association, along with DSWD and Icab, will be coordinating an international adoption conference in a hotel in Makati.

Representatives of many foreign adoption agencies are expected in this meeting, which was set to review and discuss the various programs related to the system of adoptions.