DILG wants easy access for persons with disabilities during polls

MANILA, Philippines - Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo has urged all local government units and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to make registration sites and polling precincts accessible to persons with disabilities (PWDs).

“Aside from providing them access to pathways and doorways, we should also help them exercise their right to vote,” Robredo said during the launching of the “Fully Abled Nation” project last week.

Robredo, whose father and two siblings are visually impaired, noted that there are 2.6 to 3 million Filipino PWD voters.

“What we need is provide them the access. We need more accessible registration sites and voting precincts so that PWDs will be encouraged to go out and vote,” he said.

The Fully Abled Nation campaign is part of the three-year Disability-Inclusive Elections Program spearheaded by The Asia Foundation and is supported by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).

The program aims to increase the participation of PWDs in the 2013 midterm elections and other democratic processes.

Groups of PWDs in the country also backed the passage of House Bill 4048 otherwise known as the “Polling Center Accessibility Act.”

The bill, authored by Representatives Godofredo Arquiza (party-list, Senior Citizens), Teodoro Casiño and Neri Javier Colmenares (party-list, Bayan Muna), Luzviminda Ilagan and Emerenciana de Jesus (party-list, Gabriela), Rafael Mariano (party-list, Anakpawis), Antonio Tinio (party-list, ACT-Teachers), and Raymond Palatino (party-list, Kabataan), was approved on second reading by the House of Representatives.

A survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), conducted from Dec. 3 to 7, 2011, found that PWDs participation in voting is highest among the visually impaired (84 percent) followed by orthopedically impaired (83 percent) and hearing impaired (80 percent).

On the likelihood that PWDs will register in order to vote, the percentage is highest among the hearing and speech impaired (31 percent), followed by orthopedically impaired (29 percent) and visually impaired (15 percent), the SWS said.

Meanwhile, Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said promoting the rights of the PWDs to suffrage “has legal, constitutional and international support.”

“We have the 1987 Constitution, Omnibus Election Code, Law on Continued Registration, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Disabled, among others,” he said.

Sarmiento likewise asked President Aquino to consider appointing a Comelec commissioner who will represent PWDs.

“We have a vacancy in the Comelec now and soon I am going to retire, it is my wish to see a PWD seated as Comelec commissioner,” he said.

He also stressed the need for a PWD party-list in Congress who would champion their cause and will represent them in the lawmaking body.