Cotabato PWD sector welfare-advocacy group launched

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Persons with disabilities in Cotabato province now have a bloc to represent them in multi-sector dialogues pertaining to issues and concerns besetting their community.

The pioneering Cotabato Persons With Disability Provincial Federation, or CPWDPF, has representatives from all 17 towns in the province and in its capital, Kidapawan City.

Radio reports in Central Mindanao cities on Sunday, February 23, stated that CPWDPF officials met just last Friday in Kabacan municipality and discussed how they can support the humanitarian programs of Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Mendoza for PWDs in the province.

Mendoza, chairperson of the multi-sector Regional Development Council 12, Arleen Timson, chief of the Cotabato Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office, and Kabacan Mayor Evangeline Guzman together organized the first ever conference of the CPWDPF.

Officials of the CPWDPF, the first ever in Region 12, planned out community programs that would benefit PWDs in far-flung areas in the province during their first ever meeting last Friday in Kabacan in the 3rd district of the province. 

“Our PWD community in the province now has a strong voice via this federation,” Guzman said.

The officers of the CPWDPF are from the Muslim, Christian and indigenous communities in Cotabato province, according to Guzman.