Doing it for the least of my brethren

Today is the 42nd Founding Anniversary of the Cebu Society for Crippled Children, Inc. (CSCCI) which my late mother Ascension S. Avila founded after our youngest sister Adela Kono had polio at the age of two. At that time, my mother realized that all our schools from kindergarten to High School and College were not disabled friendly. Hence the only way for Persons with Disabilities (PWD) to study was through the grade school she established inside the Don Vicente Sotto Medical Center.

It’s my mother’s 1st death anniversary on Monday Aug.13th and quite timely today, the CSCCI will inaugurate its new school called the Guardian Angel’s School for Children with Orthopedic Disabilities at their new location inside the Southwestern University (SWU), courtesy of President Andrew Aznar. Because SWU allowed this school to move to their grounds, SWH now has the distinction of being the only private elementary school that is disable friendly complete with toilet facilities.

We thank the members of the CSCCI Board especially its new President Mrs. Carmen Martinez for continuing the dreams and aspirations of my mother bringing hope to disabled children in Cebu. Today my sister Adela Kono is the vice chairman of the Regional Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons (RCWDP) and continues with her relentless drive to have the Accessibility Law B.P. 344 enforced in all our schools and private and public buildings.

If only our schools were accessible way back in the 60’s then there would have been no need for my mother to have a school for the crippled children. We Filipinos are known to care for our old folks and not send them to a home for the aged like they do in America. Yet, it just makes me wonder why most of our homes are not even disabled friendly?

The spirit of B.P. 344 is to make all buildings accessible for all PWDs. But do we really need a law to enforce what we Christians ought to know in our hearts what our Lord Jesus Christ taught us? “If you do this to the least of my brethren… you do this to me.” What we need is to destroy the barriers inside our heads, barriers that makes us ashamed or pitiful of PWD’s. But what PWD’s need is not your pity or sympathy… PWD’s are like you and me… they also like to go places we all want to go. All they need is ramps and toilet facilities for their use. The Western countries have such facilities as part of their normal service. If we want to be a 1st World country, then let’s adopt what they are doing for PWDs.

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Last Wednesday, I was supposed to be in Dumaguete City to attend the Dialogue on Federalism organized by the Center for Local and Regional Governance (CLRG) and the National College of Public Administration and Governance of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman sponsored by the Institute of Federalism Switzerland (IFF). Unfortunately, I had to forgo that trip… but our group dubbed “Save our Languages through Federalism (SOLFED) was represented by President Dr. Jose “Joey” Dacudao and some members from Bacolod and Iloilo.

I also learned from Atty. Manuelino Faelnar the Manila coordinator of SOLFED that this dialogue was also held at the UP Diliman exactly a week ago on Aug.3rd. While our hopes and dreams of having a Federal State has been dashed by the coming Presidential elections in the year 2010. It doesn’t mean that we should stop educating our people about the benefits we can derive from Federalism and our neighbor Malaysia is a great example.

Today the two major arguments against federalism can easily be answered. First… that it would splinter our country into different states or cause a civil war. We know that there was a civil war in America, but it didn’t cause the disintegration of the United States. In fact, because they are a Federal nation, they are the most powerful nation on earth!

Another argument against federalism is it is too expensive to operate. Again while this is true… our problem is not for lack of people to fill up those government positions. God knows that too many of our bright young people are leaving this country for jobs abroad. We certainly can hire them to work for a Federalized Philippines and serve our people through empowered Federal States. Two questions were discussed in that forum, “Will federalism solve the long-standing conflicts in the Philippines?” and Does the Philippines possess the conditions to shift to a federal system today?” We’ll get the answers in our next columns.

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled, “Straight from the Sky” shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8:00 in the evening.