Gealon wants ordinances for PWDs implemented

CEBU, Philippines —  The Cebu City Council has recommended to the Office of the Mayor to implement certain City Ordinances relating to the rights and welfare of persons with disability (PWDs) in the city.

Councilor Rey Gealon moved for the resolution during his privilege speech on Wednesday.

“Today, I rise on the occasion of the 44th National Disability Prevention & Rehabilitation Week- a celebration aimed to account for the supposed gains of RA 7277, otherwise known as the Magna Carta For Disabled Persons,” said Gealon.

“I rise to speak on behalf of the more than sixteen thousand PWDs who are among our constituency. Guided by the continuing cry for social justice, encapsulated in the tenet: ‘those who have less in life must have more in law,’ may I humbly ask what have PWDs substantially and significantly gained since the Magna Carta’s inception over thirty years ago,” he added.

Gealon said that at the national level, compliance of Section 5 of the law regarding equal opportunity for employment, mandating that “5% of all casual emergency and contractual positions in the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health and Department of Education, and other government agencies, offices, or corporations engaged in social development shall be reserved for disabled persons” is wanting.

He cited a certain Jojo Pimentel, a worker in the government and foremost advocate of PWD rights in the city, who has been clamoring for the longest time, the rightful representation of PWDs in the city’s policy formulation through an office devoted exclusively for them.

The councilor said there is such office, but has not been operationalized.

In October 2004, pursuant to CO 2020, the Office of Persons With Disability Affairs was created, and in September 2013, it was amended by CO 2369 and now known as PDAO – Persons With Disabilities Affairs Office.

Gealon said that as of yet, 18 years later, PDAO is “MIA- missing in action.”

He said in the interim, the 13th Sangguniang Panlungsod bridged the gap when it enacted CO 2456 granting P12,000 annual financial assistance to qualified PWDs, adding that three amending ordinances were passed relating to some of its provisions but the amount has remained the same.

“It is in that light that I call for the operationalization of PDAO, to begin with. The PWD agenda must be embedded in the policy of this administration,” said Gealon.

“Perhaps, a direction for the Human Resource Development Office to engage the services of PWDs or employ them at the Department of Social Welfare Services, City Health Department and Local Health Board being counterpart offices directed by the Magna Carta... On one hand, we despised dole-outs and band-aid solution. On the other hand, we cannot leave PWDs to fend for themselves,” he said.

Gealon added that CO 2610, enacted on March 2021, is supposed to establish home care support services to Indigent Persons With Disabilities, mandating the creation of Barangay Home Care Service Support Committee. However, none has been convened.

Authored by then councilor Alvin Dizon, the “Home Care Support Services Ordinance in the City of Cebu” seeks to establish a system of home care support services to be spearheaded by the barangay to provide support to persons with severe disabilities, terminally-ill, bedridden indigent senior citizens and their families, who cannot afford the services of a private health care institution or caregivers/personal assistants especially in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gealon said that many PWDs in the city are awaiting this service.

He hopes that these measures will soon be implemented to provide more opportunities for the PWD sector, which could also help for the betterment of Cebu City.

“I have no doubt in my mind that we will be making strides if we can only implement these existing ordinances for our people in the PWD sector,” said Gealon. — FPL (FREEMAN)