The main purpose of adoption statutes is the promotion of the welfare of children. The law must also be applied with compassion, understanding and less severity in view of the fact that it is intended to provide home, love, care and education for less fortunate children.

The relationship of stepfather or stepmother and stepson or stepdaughter is included by analogy as similar to that of ascendant and descendant, and where appreciated as an aggravating circumstance in rape, the award of exemplary damages, in addition to moral damages, is proper.

The contention that a party's complaint for contempt must be the subject of a separate action would nullify contempt proceedings as means of securing obedience to the lawful processes of a court-this theory would reward ingenuity and cunning in revising orders which substantially are the same as the order previously prohibited by the court.

In the absence of a specific provision of law prohibiting retroactivity of the effectivity of arbitral awards issued by the Secretary of Labor, he is deemed vested with plenary and discretionary powers to determine the effectivity thereof.

Exhaustion of the remedies in the administrative forum, being a condition precedent prior to one's recourse to the courts and more importantly, being an element of private respondent's right of action, is too significant to be waylaid by the lower court.