Wanted: A barrier free access for PWDs!

It’s right smack the 33rd National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation (NDPR) Week (from July 17-23rd) and this is celebrated annually, but in truth, there is really nothing much to crow about because many Local Government Units (LGU) officials just don’t give a damn about the Persons with Disabilities (PWD) sector. Most people still believe that disabled persons should be left at home, so as not to shame their families. This is sheer discrimination and PWDs have been subjected to this for many decades now.

 All I can say is, just you wait… someday whether you like it or not, you could join the ranks of PWDs. You may not get sick with polio or any other debilitating disease, but you could be a victim of a stroke… and end up in a wheelchair or worse, meet an accident that prevents you from walking or even standing up or simply, you will get very old and need ramps rather than stairs. Then you will remember that I wrote this article.

 There is no question that the national government came up with laws to help PWDs, like the B.P. 344, known as the Accessibility Law, where the spirit of the law allows for a barrier-free accessibility for PWDs. Unfortunately, many LGUs still do not follow this law, which is to assure the disabled persons easy access to public buildings. SM Shoemart is the best example of easy access because PWDs can either use ramps or elevators to go to other levels in the building. They even have a small lift to bring a wheelchair bound person to the main floor without getting out of the wheelchair.

 In case you didn’t know, a lot of foreign tourists are people who are already retired and aging and chances are, they need some kind of support like grab handles or ramps and yes, including toilets dedicated for wheelchair bound people. More important for you to know, the target market of cruise ships are retired people who have money to spend. They have worked so hard to earn that extra money and by the time they have retired, chances are, they are living in a various state of health problems and thus need easy access especially in cruise ships.

 I have lived with my sister Adela Avila Kono since she got polio at the age of two and what I learned from her is simple. She doesn’t want your pity, but rather your understanding that disabled persons have places to go just like all of us. All they need is a barrier free structure to make things easier for them to go around. So in this 33rd National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation (NDPR) Week, we hope that we’ve delivered to you the message for the PWD sector to easy access to all facilities.

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 Yesterday, The FREEMAN blared in its headline, “Mike Rama calls Tomas a coward!” Hmmm, words like that tell us that there is now an escalation of this rift between the two former allies in the Bando-Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK). The bone of contention in this recent verbal tussle between the two political leaders of Cebu City are Christmas lights that former Mayor and now Congressman Tomas Osmeña said were purchased without public bidding. Of course Mayor Rama fired back questioning the former Mayor for his allowing the payment of surplus vehicles for use as a garbage truck, despite the purchase of brand new garbage trucks.

 Again, I would like to emphasize to our readers that we are not taking sides here. As my mentor, the late Sir Max Soliven always advised me “In a barroom brawl between two friends, it is best to get out of the bar!” But it doesn’t mean to say that I cannot give a friendly advice to both of them. This advice comes from the pages of the Holy Bible, in Luke 6: 42: when our Lord Jesus said, “How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite! First get rid of the plank in your own eye, then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your brothers’ eye.”

 If you don’t like that Bible passage, then let me show you another one in John 8:7 when the Jews were about to stone the woman caught in adultery. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not stop them, but he said, “Let him who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.” But no one threw a stone at Mary Magdalene, and our Lord Jesus did not condemn her either, but only advised her not to sin again.”

 I’m using Scripture in the hope that our two feuding friends would come to their senses and work together for the betterment of Cebu City, rather than work for their own vested and selfish interests. It’s bad enough that the City of Cebu cannot get along with the Province of Cebu during the term of then Mayor Osmeña. But now this feud will certainly divide the constituents of Cebu City into a pro-Rama or Pro-Osmeña. Remember the old saying, “United we stand, divided we fall.” So should we allow Cebu to fall? 

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