I. National Policy and Legislative Framework
Republic Act 7277 the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons of 199212 is the chief national policy document for persons with disabilities in the Philippines. It incorporates all of the essential provisions of earlier national laws including that of the Batas Pambansa 344 of 1983 or the Accessibility law.13 The Reasonable Accommodation provisions are identified as improvements to Batas Pambansa 344 since they explicitly express the essence relative to accessibility to services and public building and offices. Following the Constitutional prohibition on formulating policies with ill effects to non compliance to new provisions of new laws, the requirements on access features are directed only to edifices built after its effectivity in 1983. However, one could casually roam around the Metro Manila and see that among the violators are government-built structures and offices. Recently, the Magna Carta was significantly amended by Republic Act 9442 of 200614 which incorporates additional social, economic and human rights provisions. In addition to significant discounts on transportation fares and purchases of medicines and other basic daily essentials, RA 9442 strictly prohibits and penalizes any act that has an effect of vilifying persons with disabilities.
Although formulated before the CRPD came into force, there are clear indications that the human rights sentiments have been the Magna Carta's more salient character. The Declaration of Policies states that:
- Disabled persons are part of the Philippine society, thus the State shall give full support to the improvement of the total well being of disabled persons and their integration into the mainstream of society. Toward this end, the State shall adopt policies ensuring the rehabilitation, self-development and self-reliance of disabled persons. It shall develop their skills and potentials to enable them to compete favorably for available opportunities.
- Disabled persons have the same rights as other people to take their proper place in society. They should be able to live freely and as independently as possible. This must be the concern of everyone – the family, community, and all government and nongovernment organizations. Disabled persons rights must never be perceived as welfare services by the Government.
- The rehabilitation of the disabled persons shall be the concern of the Government in order to foster their capacity to attain a more meaningful, productive and satisfying life. To reach out to a greater number of disabled persons, the rehabilitation services and benefits shall be expanded beyond the traditional urban-based centers to community based programs, that will ensure full participation of different sectors as supported by national and local government agencies.
- The State also recognizes the role of the private sector in promoting the welfare of disabled persons and shall encourage partnership in programs that address their needs and concerns.
- To facilitate integration of disabled persons into the mainstream of society; The State shall advocate for and encourage respect for disabled persons. The state shall exert all efforts to remove all social, cultural, economic, environmental and attitude barriers that are prejudicial to disabled persons.15
From the immediate period of effectivity of the Constitution, Executive Order 23216was formulated creating the National Council on the Welfare of Disabled Persons (NCWDP). As the national policy-making and coordinating agency, the NCWDP. is tasked to ensure the consideration and implementation of the Constitutional provisions. It is structured so that persons with disabilities can actively participate at the planning and formulation stages. Through its various Sub Committee structures specific concerns are examined by identified government agencies providing services to the sector alongside representatives of organizations of persons with disabilities. NCWDP structures are designed even to reach out to the grass roots levels via the Regional Council on the Welfare of Disabled Persons (RCWDP) established nearly in all regions of the country. Non-governmental Organizations of, for and by persons with disabilities are represented in the deliberations of proposed and implemented laws and policies for continuing analyses and reformulations as needed.
In 1997, five years after the effectivity of RA 7277, a formal review group was organized under NCWDP management, involving mainly persons with disabilities resulting in significant proposed legislations aimed to improve and even remove certain provisions of this chief national law for the persons with disabilities, the RA 7277. Advocacy via partnership with government and non government sectors including, in many cases, private and international advocacy and funding groups, is a significant activity within the NCWDP structure.
Some of the more important activities NCWDP coordinated were the several attempts to develop a registry and data bank of persons with disabilities. In the study conducted by Asian Development Bank, it stated that:
The first census to gather this information counted 637,000 people as having some type of disability in 1990. The 1995 census counted 919,292 people with disabilities. In 1995, poor vision was the most common type of disability, representing 34.1% of all people with disabilities. In the 2000 census, the number of people with disabilities did not increase significantly despite a more broadly defined definition of disability: 942,000 people (1.2% of the total population) reported disabilities in 2000, evenly split between men and women. World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that disabled people make up approximately 10% of any given population. In the Philippines, this would mean more than 8.5 million people with disabilities in 2005. In 2004 the National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons (NCWDP) was in the process of establishing a data resource center on disability in the country, to include demographic data on persons with disabilities and social and economic dimensions of disability. As of October 2004 more than 300,000 people with disabilities had registered. The expectation is to register 1 million people with disabilities nationwide by the end of 2004.17
There is however one persistent criticism against the 1987 Executive Order 23218 which make the agency an attached body to DSWD It is the perceived demotion of the status of the agency from the agency it replaced. Presidential Decree No. 1509 of 197819 established the National Commission Concerning Disabled Persons (NCCDP). The creation of this government agency under the Office of the President articulated the government responsibility for the fullest protection and assistance to persons with disabilities.
- Note #19
- The LawPhil Project
- Return
With all its favorable provisions certain members of the sector further point to several provisions where Magna Carta is wanting. Section 5 which reserves five percent of government items to qualified persons with disabilities is considered more restrictive than beneficial since the items identified are the emergency, casual, contractual, etc. which, in recent years, are being gradually phased out in the bureaucracy. Furthermore, efforts are being made to modify or remove Section 44 which requires a pattern
of discriminatory acts and public outrage
before commencing prosecution against violators.
The National Commission Concerning Disabled Persons (NCCDP) was within the Office of the President, while NCWDP became only an attached agency of a part of the bureaucracy perceived as lowly, that is, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). It is perceived that this demotion of the former regime has been corrected to better comply to the CRPD Prior to the ratification of the CRPD, Executive Order 709 of February 200820 transferred the former NCWDP to the Office of the President and renamed the institution as the National Council on Disability Affairs. A person with disability was then appointed as its Executive Director.