Barredo appeals for differently abled

Philippine Sports Association for the Differently Abled (Philspada) and National Paralympic Committee of the Philippines (NPCP) president Mike Barredo is appealing to the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) for the release of cash incentives due to disabled athletes who won medals at the fifth ASEAN Para Games in Malaysia last August.

Barredo, 54, says Senators Pia Cayetano and Gringo Honasan, who sent off the country’s delegation of 64 athletes to Malaysia, are solidly behind the appeal.

In Malaysia, the Philippines finished fifth in the country standings with a haul of 24 gold, 24 silver and 26 bronze medals. There were 11 sports in the calendar of the ASEAN Para Games – athletics, swimming, badminton, chess, powerlifting, table tennis, wheelchair tennis, wheelchair basketball, sailing, ten-pin bowing and sitting volleyball. Two years before in Thailand, the sports included boccia, archery, goalball, judo, wheelchair fencing and shooting. The ASEAN Para Games are held in the same year as the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

The Philippines also participated at the International Wheelchair Amputee Sports (IWAS) competition in Bangalore, India, last Nov. 22-Dec. 2 with a bounty of five gold, four silver and two bronze medals.

While Barredo realizes there is no law requiring the PSC to provide cash incentives for disabled athletes, he says previous PSC administrations didn’t hesitate to reward the achievers.

There are three major international Para Games held for disabled athletes. The first is the ASEAN Para Games which are held in the same year as the SEA Games and were started in Malaysia in 2001. The second is the Far East and South Pacific (FESPIC) Games which had nine editions from 1975 to 2006 – now renamed the Asian Para Games held after every Asian Games. The third is the Palaympic Games held after every Olympics since Sydney in 2000.

Barredo says the events are “parallel” competitions to the SEA and Asian Games and the Olympics to recognize differently abled athletes with physical, mental and sensorial deficiencies. The coverage includes amputees, wheelchair-bound athletes and those with visual impairments and cerebral palsy.

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Philspada was formed in 1996 with Barredo as founding president. He gave up the presidency to become a PSC commissioner then returned to the position after his government term was over. In Turkey last April, Barredo was reelected to a four-term term up to 2013 as president of the 30-year-old International Blind Sports Association with a membership of 108 countries.

In 2008, Philspada and the NPCP – as the joint national sports association for disabled athletes – was cited as the Disabled Group of the Year by the Apolinario Mabini Awards Committee.

“I know how differently abled athletes are given equal treatment like other athletes on the world stage,” says Barredo who lost his eyesight in a car accident at the age of 24 in 1979. “I’m sure the PSC is now reviewing its priorities and I’m confident Chairman Harry Angping, a fellow Jaycee and La Sallian, will recognize the contributions of our disabled athletes just as he recognizes the contributions of our other athletes who bring pride and honor to our country.”

Powerlifter Adeline Dumapong is so far the most celebrated Philspada athlete. She bagged a bronze at the 2000 Paralympics and picked up a cash reward of P500,000 for her feat – P200,000 from the PSC under then Chairman Butch Tuason and P300,000 from then President Estrada.

At the 2007 ASEAN Para Games, Philspada gold medalists were given P25,000 each, silver medalists P15,000 and bronze medalists P10,000 by the PSC.

To formalize the awarding of cash incentives, Barredo says he has been pushing for an amendment to R. A. No. 9064 since 2003. The law stipulates cash and other non-monetary benefits and incentives for national athletes, coaches and trainers

Last Thursday, Barredo showed up at a Senate hearing where he voiced out his appeal in behalf of the differently abled athletes to Cayetano and Honasan. The hearing was set primarily to investigate the political wrangling that led to the disqualification of the national cycling team at the recent Laos SEA Games. Barredo somehow managed to bring out the importance of amending R. A. 9064 to provide for differently abled athletes.

“Unfortunately, the amendment will have to be refiled and taken up in the next Congress because of lack of time,” says Barredo, a 1993 Ten Most Outstanding Young Men awardee for humanitarian service and community development. In the proposed amendment, a gold medalist in the Paralympics will be awarded a cash incentive of P5 million, a gold medalist in the Asian Para Games P1 million and a gold medalist in the ASEAN Para Games P500,000.

“I’m not campaigning for my own personal benefit,” says Barredo. “I’m fighting for all disabled athletes, that they be given their just reward for bringing honor and glory to our country just like other athletes.”

Barredo says even as the amendment is still pending, the PSC has always treated disabled athletes with respect and fairness in accordance with the government agency’s sports for all program.

Barredo points out that disabled athletes undergo a more challenging physical and mental conditioning program than other athletes to get ready for a competition because of their impairments.

“But we’re proud to note that our Filipino disabled athletes have been very competitive,” he says. “At the FESPIC Games in 2002, we took two silver and three bronze medals and in 2006, we had two gold, 10 silver and five bronze medals. These were parallel events to the Asian Games so the level of competition was much higher than at the ASEAN Para Games.”

Barredo says he has known Angping for over 30 years since their school and Jaycee days.

“Chairman Harry and I go back a long way,” he says. “I’ve served in the PSC myself. I realize the current law does not require cash incentives for disabled athletes and the PSC is doing a commendable fiscal management job in cleaning up and setting priorities. But I’m hoping Chairman Harry recognizes what our disabled athletes have done for our country. I know his heart is for all our athletes, differently abled or not.”