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Foreword, Acknowledgements and Executive Summary

Foreword

To agree internationally on provisions and standards for human rights is one thing. To live by them is another matter.

The fact that the international community now has fully recognized that the exclusion and discrimination facing people with disabilities is a human rights concern for all nations in the world is of extreme importance for hundreds of millions of people living with a disability. It offers great opportunities to improve their living conditions.

However, real change can only be achieved, if we learn to identify, describe and report human rights violations against people with disabilities. We must use our efforts to develop our capacity in monitoring the situation through a sharp human rights lens. Persons with disabilities themselves must play the major role in this pioneering work. This is what we want to achieve through the Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI) project and pilot projects with partners from the disability communities of several countries.

This is also the reason why the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) has provided us with economic resources for this task.

We want to thank the KAMPI organization, and in particular Marieta Jandayan, Project Coordinator, and all of the people who worked in the Philippines to make this report come alive. It is a model for other similar projects in other countries in which people with disabilities themselves take on the monitoring of their own rights. We hope that it is the beginning of a series of reports that will lead to social justice for people with disabilities in the Philippines.

Bengt Lindqvist and Marcia Rioux
Co-Directors, Disability Rights Promotion International

Acknowledgement

This study is the first of its kind for the people with disabilities sector in the Philippines. As such, several constraints and stumbling blocks have been encountered in the preparation of this study. But these were all overcome because of unselfish support from numerous agencies and individuals. We owe them a lot and could not thank them enough for without their support this study could have not been made possible.

  • DRPI – for the financial and technical support in conducting the study through its Co-Director, Dr. Marcia Rioux;
  • Dr. Bengt Lindqvist – for his leadership and support as Co-Director of DRPI
  • Ms. Venus M. Ilagan – for bringing DRPI to the Philippines;
  • Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA) through Danish Society of Polio and Accident Victims (PTU) - for giving financial support to KAMPI Secretariat;
  • BBCY staff – for their all-out support;
  • SMART Research Services, Inc. – for handling the data processing and analysis through its president, Mr. Waldomar "Dondon" Canales;
  • NCDA – for extending logistical and technical support through its Deputy Executive Director, Mr. Mateo Leo Jr.;
  • CHR – for technical support through its director, Dr. Renante Basas;
  • National Committee on UN Convention of Sectoral Council of people with disabilities – for technical support through its chairman, Mr. Lauro Purcil;
  • The Research Team headed by Ms. Marieta Jandayan and the devoted site coordinators and monitors;
  • The Support Group headed by the Executive Director of KAMPI, Ms. Sonia Rina Figueroa;
  • Various organizations of Persons with disabilities and LGUs for their cooperation and support to the survey; and
  • The respondents of the survey for opening their hearts to the monitors during the interviews.

Our sincerest gratitude to all of you. Thank you very much.

KAMPI

Executive Summary

In the past, persons with disabilities were often invisible and tended to be viewed as "objects" of protection, treatment and assistance rather than subjects of rights. As a result of this approach, persons with disabilities (persons with disabilities) were excluded from mainstream society, and provided with special schools, sheltered workshops, and separate housing and transportation on the assumption that they were incapable of coping with either society at large or all or most of the major life activities. They were denied equal access to those basic rights and fundamental freedoms (e.g. health care, employment, education, vote, participation in cultural activities) that most people take for granted.

A dramatic shift in perspective has been taking place over the past two decades, and persons with disabilities have started to be viewed as holders of rights. This process is slow and uneven, but it is taking place in all economic and social systems. The rights-based approach to disability essentially means viewing persons with disabilities as subjects of law. Its aim is to empower persons with disabilities and to ensure their active participation in political, economic, social, and cultural life in a way that is respectful and accommodating of their difference. This approach is normatively based on international human rights standards and operationally directed to enhancing the promotion and protection of the human rights of persons with disabilities. Strengthening the protection of human rights is also a way to prevent disability. There is no Constitutional definition of disability in the 1987 Philippine Constitution. However, there exists a statutory definition in Section 4 of the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons (Republic Act 7277) which defines disability as follows:

(1) A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more psychological, physiological or anatomical function of an individual or activities of such individual; (2) a record of such impairment or (3) being regarded as having such impairment.

The definition is wide enough to include persons who may not traditionally be regarded as disabled. In fact, the Magna Carta for Persons with Disabilities further defines disabled persons as those who have restrictions or different abilities, as a result of a mental, physical or sensory impairment, in performing an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.

In this regard, monitoring of the individual experiences of persons with disabilities has become imperative since it has never been done before in the Philippines. With financial and technical assistance from Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI), the Katipunan ng Maykapansanan sa Pilipinas, Inc. (KAMPI) conducted a survey of 100 persons with disabilities in the Philippines during the period October 30 – November 15, 2008. The total sample size was equally distributed among the four major geographic areas or clusters, namely: National Capital Region (NCR or Metro Manila), Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. It basically covered the entire country. The survey was conducted by persons with disabilities themselves.

Based on the narrations of the one hundred respondents who participated in this survey, it is now evident that over the last five years violations of human rights have taken place for many people with disabilities in the Philippines. Violations occurred in the family, school, work, community and every facet of life. Human rights violations were found to be particularly frequent in situations related to participation in social, political and cultural activities and most often involved overt discrimination and unequal treatment, disrespect for difference, erosion of dignity, denial of accessibility and exclusion. Persons with disabilities reporting higher incidence of human rights violations were female belonging to the lower and middle income class and those working as office clerks, massage workers, and unskilled workers or laborers whether in urban or rural areas. Despite all of these, however, only a handful of victims of human rights violations reported them to proper authorities primarily due to lack of confidence that something positive will happen, lack of knowledge on how and where to report, avoidance of trouble, and the fatalistic attitude of most Filipinos to raise up problems and abuse to the Lord. For some respondents disabilities are even considered as gifts from God as well as the will of God according to divine plans. As a result, reports on human rights violations against persons with disabilities have been a very rare occurrence in the Philippines, in the period from 2003-2008.

A review of disability rights protection and mechanisms in the country showed that the Philippines has significant infrastructure (laws, institutions, programs, activities, expressed commitments & advocacy in international and local settings, non-governmental organizations of persons with disabilities, etc.) to promote the rights of persons with disabilities. In fact, it seems that there is nothing more that persons with disabilities in the Philippines could ask for. In short, in paper it is like a haven for persons with disabilities.

However, based alone on the respondents to this survey people with disabilities have not evidenced the promises of the policy and programs in place to ensure their rights. Why is this happening despite the presence of all sorts of infrastructures for the welfare of Persons with disabilities? The answer is not clear. The survey covered only persons with disabilities and no interviews were carried out with those responsible for the implementation of the laws, policies and programs that promise that rights will be respected. We could only infer that perhaps there is still need for more of the ingredients that would transform the legal provisions, programs, activities, commitments, advocacy, etc. that are very convincing in paper into tangible outputs that would directly benefit persons with disabilities and their families. What are those ingredients? We are not also sure but we could suggest that a close monitoring of those policies and programs could help to move towards a more systemic implementation of the policies. It also requires perseverance, willpower and determination on the part of the government.

Given the wide gap found in this study between the prescriptions of existing laws and policies and the reality on the ground the following measures are considered of immediate necessity:

  • Implement and enforce the provisions of the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons, UN CRPD and other pertinent laws on persons with disability with perseverance, willpower and determination, notably through awareness-raising campaigns directed to the general population, institutions (business, educational, health, etc.), local government al units and all government agencies, as well as to persons with disabilities themselves and their organizations. As one respondent put it:

    There is already the Magna Carta for persons with disabilities. There is penalty for mocking persons with disability. And there should be awareness campaigns in the community... The community should be made aware. Because even if there is a law, people are not aware.

  • Provide immediate economic relief to persons with disabilities and their families, as this study participant expressed:

    First I need livelihood assistance. For example, I dream of having a clinic where we can do our service so that people who want to have a massage will just go to our clinic.

  • Eliminate barriers to participation in social life (particularly in the public transport system), and tackle disability discrimination in access to education and the labour market so that people with disabilities can live lives with dignity and equality.

    I hope they would allot seats to persons with disabilities in transportations. I also hope they would have an association that would discipline their members about [their treatment of] persons with disabilities, so that they would pay enough attention.

  • Adopt a cross-disability focus to address the needs and human rights of all persons with disabilities and not just a few groups; This sentiment is echoed on the following excerpts:

    ... One more thing, the government seems to see other kinds of disabilities more than the deaf. We see ramps and elevators all over the city and that's really great. But how about the deaf, there are a lot of Filipino deaf here...

  • In all measures considered to uphold the human rights of persons with disabilities prioritize the most disadvantaged groups to improving their socio-economic status. These are the lower and middle income groups, non-professionals, particularly women, and those 18-40 years old.

These specific recommendations reflect the key issues and concerns of organizations of the Filipino Disability Movement, particularly KAMPI, which further advocate for political action and greater collaboration of efforts by Government, people with disabilities and their organizations to promote shared responsibility and accountability among sectors in all future development of policies, programs and services to advance the human rights of persons with disabilities in the Philippines.

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