Senate OKs Magna Carta for people with disabilities

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate has approved on second reading the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons that would mandate local governments to have specific programs for people with disabilities.

Under Senate Bill 3560 or the proposed act establishing the institutional mechanism to ensure the implementation of programs and services for persons with disabilities, a Persons with Disability (PWD) Affairs Office must be created in every province, city and municipality.

The proposed measure was approved unanimously on second reading by the Senate before it went on recess last Dec.16.

An estimated 9.7 million PWDs are expected to benefit from the bill once passed into law.

In the case of fourth, fifth and sixth-class municipalities, the bill calls on local government units to designate a focal person who shall be responsible for coordinating and ensuring the delivery of programs and services for PWDs.

Priority in appointment should be given to a PWD with experience in providing services to his or her fellow PWDs.

The measure also renames the term “disabled persons” into “persons with disabilities” - the internationally accepted and recognized term for people who are either: hearing impaired, orthopedically impaired, visually impaired or mentally challenged.

Sen. Pia Cayetano, who chairs the Senate committee on social justice, welfare and rural development and the bill’s principal sponsor, said establishing institutional mechanisms would ensure that the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons would now be implemented and would help those with disabilities in their rehabilitation, self-development, and self-reliance and for their eventual integration into mainstream society.

Cayetano said several Filipinos with disabilities have proven that they could stand out despite their physical limitations.

“Disabilities should never be a hindrance to excel in one’s chosen field. By being assets in society, many PWDs are breaking barriers and changing the misimpression that they are a burden to the nation,” Cayetano said in a statement.

In her sponsorship speech, Cayetano cited several outstanding PWDs, saying more could follow with enough support at the local government level.

They include Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca, a 2008 Ramon Magsaysay awardee for government service, whose polio did not prevent her from serving her province mates; Roselle Ambubuyog, a visually impaired student from Ateneo who graduated summa cum laude and now heads a number of foundations for the blind while acting as consultant for a US firm that develops new products for the blind; Ana Kristina Arce, a 23-year-old hearing impaired student who is the first to graduate magna cum laude from the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde; Olegario Cantos VII, a visually impaired Filipino-American lawyer who is presently the vice chairman of US President Barack Obama’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities; and Adeline Dumapong-Ancheta, the first Filipina Paralympics medalist who won the bronze medal in powerlifting in the 2000 Paralympics and has recently gone in to swimming despite having no legs below the knee and no right hand.

Co-authors of the measure are Senators Manuel Roxas II, Loren Legarda, Manuel Lapid, Miriam Defesor-Santiago, Edgardo Angara, Manuel Villar Jr., Antonio Trillanes IV, Ramon Revilla and Alan Peter Cayetano.