‘Autism awareness needed among law enforcers’

MANILA, Philippines — An advocate and behavior therapist yesterday said the death of teenager Edwin Arnigo in Valenzuela highlighted the need to teach autism awareness among emergency responders.

Mark Anthony Padil, founder of Autism Response Ph, said he has made it his life mission to serve as a bridge between parents and emergency responders so they could better deal with persons on the autism spectrum.

“Our role is to bridge the critical gap between families of persons with autism and first responders,” Padil told The STAR in a phone interview yesterday.

He laid down the basics for law enforcers and emergency responders: approach persons with autism in a non-threatening manner; understand touching a person with autism may cause a fight or flight reaction; talk to them in a calm voice; instruct the person with autism briefly; maintain a safe distance; utilize or look for the person’s caregiver; advocate or ask for what the person wants; restrict or minimize sensory inputs by not making the person anxious.

Padil said the police raid may have triggered a fight or flight reaction in Arnigo, which made him look suspicious to the police officers who are ill-equipped on how to approach persons on the autism spectrum.

But the behavior therapist said he is deferring to the probe led by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

The NBI is looking into how Sr. M/Sgt. Christopher Salcedo shot Arnigo as the teenager was being accosted during a raid on an illegal cockfighting game in Barangay Lingunan last May 23.

Arnigo’s family denied the teenager was a participant in the tupada. The family has accused the police officer of killing the teenager. The Valenzuela police has downplayed the gunshot as an accident.

The NBI has summoned Salcedo and the three other members of the police raiding team – Cpls. Kenneth Pacheco, Rodel Villar and Regin Rex Paredes – according to NBI spokesperson deputy director Ferdinand Lavin.