PWDs rue inaccessible gov't funds, lack of support

MANILA, Philippines - Over one percent of Filipinos have disabilities,  but the government has yet to fully tap their potential as a force to make significant contribution to the economy.

At the sidelines of the official launch of the book "The Right to Vote: Filipinos with Disabilities and the 2013 Elections" on April 23 in Manila, Capt. Oscar Talleon, president of the Alyansa ng May Kapansanang Pinoy (AKAP-Pinoy) told philSTAR.com that the PWD sector in the Philippines feels that they lack support from the government to help them become productive.

"There really is a lack of support when it comes to our development. For instance, for our programs and projects, we have to look for funds. Government does not really give us much," he said.

According to data released by the National Statistics Office in 2013, out of 92.1 million Filipinos, 1.443 million (1.57 percent) have disabilities. The number was higher than the 935,551 PWDs in 2000, which represented 1.23 percent of the population.

According to the NSO, more than half of the PWDs belong to the working age group of 15 to 64 years old.

Talleon said the government has amended two years ago a regular provision in the national budget that stated that all line agencies must allocate one percent of their budget for programs for persons with disability and senior citizens.

Under the amendment, line agencies could earmark higher amount for programs and projects for PWDs and the elderlies. However, this has not benefited the PWDs.

"You know, we prefer the one with one percent because that's assured amount. Even without the one percent [provision], we were not taking advantage, very few of us take advantage [of that provision] because we do not know how to access it," he said.

Talleon added that PWDs find it difficult to comply with requirements to access government funds.

"We have to first prepare the program or the project proposal, submit it to the loine agency and the line agency will submit it to DBM. And most of the time, there's no feedback," he said.

Another problem is that PWDs are not even aware that they could tap such an allocation for their welfare.

To remedy this, Talleon said government agencies should make it easier for PWDs to access the funds. Another solution is to train and educate PWDs on preparing project proposals.

Besides the difficulty in accessing government funds, Talleon said a number of legislation must be passed by Congress to help them become more productive.

One of these measures is the Economic Independence Program for Persons with Disabilities, which would provide PWDs training to become productive. Besides training, the measure would also mandate the government to help PWDs get a job.

The measure would also help in creating market specifically for products made by PWDs.

"If ever this law is passed, 10 percent of the needs of line agencies should be given to organization or the cooperatives run by PWDs. Ten percent of the contracts, products and services should be provided by us. For instance, the linens, uniforms, or we can supply janitorial materials, we can do that. I think we can supply these janitorial materials such as soaps..." he said.

Talleon said the bill has been filed in the House of Representatives, but they have yet to find a "champion" in the Senate.

AKAP-Pinoy sought a partylist seat in Congress in the 2010 polls but was disqualified.