For the first time in the region, Cebu City through the Department of Social Welfare and Development is set to distribute identification cards next week that would offer discounts for persons with disabilities.
Under Republic Act 9442 or the amended Magna Carta for PWDs, these ID cards entitle differently abled persons to 20-percent discount benefits on products and services of establishments.
Social Welfare specialist and Program for PWDs in-charge Shalaine Marie Lucero said that the law stipulates discounts in hotels, pharmacies, private hospitals and clinics for the differently abled.
Benefits also include discounts in land transportation and professional services like medical service of doctors, among others.
Lucero said this is the “first distribution of PWD cards in the region since the approval of the said Act on July 2006.”
PWD members of organizations of physically and mentally challenged individuals shall pioneer the distribution of cards in Central Visayas, she also said.
The distribution of ID cards is one of the highlights of the National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Week celebrated on the third week of July pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 1870.
Spearheaded by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the activity has provided various services and entertainment to PWDs starting July 13.
This year’s theme “Kapag may Access, may Success” focuses on the call to the public to provide accessibility to rights of PWDs such as rights to employment, access to education, access to infrastructure features for the differently abled, and others provided in the Constitution which the public and the PWD themselves should be aware of.
“If these persons will have access to their privileges and rights, we might see them successful in their lives despite the challenges,” Lucero said.
She revealed that 1.32 percent of the population of Region 7 comprises disabled persons as of the 2000 census. That is around 80,000 of the total population of the region.
Lucero said the figure she has given is so small compared to the 500,000 PWDs they believe are in the region today.
She said there is no clear survey on the exact number of differently abled in the country. “Five million of the region’s population is yet to be segregated,” she added.
DSWD advocates for employment of deserving PWDs to private and government institutions.
Further, Lucero said that under the law, private companies might not heed the call, but government offices and establishments are mandated to allot the one-tenth of their employment force for those differently abled individuals qualified to work.
It was observed that most of the PWDs lack education and training, thus the conduct of activities that provide vocational trainings in electronic repairs, cabinet production, food processing, dressmaking, cosmetology, and self-employment to name a few.
The National Council on Disability Affair and its affiliated organizations spearheaded the conduct of the NDPR week-long celebration to highlight the nation’s efforts towards disability prevention and rehabilitation of PWDs leading to their integration in the mainstream of society. — Jessica Ann Pareja/MEEV