Persons with disabilities or PWDs, as defined by Republic Act No.

7277, the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons, are those suffering from restriction or different abilities, as a result of a mental, physical or sensory impairment, to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being. There prevails the idea that disability is a personal tragedy and a charity issue, or that it is simply the inability of a person to function normally. However, there has been a shift in the way people regard disability it is now considered a rights and development issue as well. As of 2010, about 16 per 1000 of the Philippine population had disability. Disability rates are highest among individuals aged 5 to 19 years, and males with disability outnumbered females. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------In the domestic sphere, there are six prevalent issues regarding PWDs. Education PWDs need special education. This type of education can be expensive, leaving less privileged PWDs to attend regular schools where their particular educational needs are unmet and adequate assistance cannot be provided. By working to firmly establish PWDs right to education we can reduce the gaps in social and economic development between this vulnerable group and those who suffer no impairment. Accessibility The Philippine legislature enacted Batas Pambansa Bilang 344 to enhance the mobility of disabled persons by requiring certain buildings, institutions, establishments and public utilities to install facilities and other devices. It has been 31 years since the passage of said law, and its slow paced implementation dismays PWDs. For instance, it may be observed how elevators in train stations are, more often than not, out of service, adding to the burden not only of PWDs but also of their attendants. Also, the structure of overpasses provides no disability ramps. The most glaring manifestation of lack of enforcement of BP 344 is the absence of such ramps in entrances and exits of public utility vehicles. Poverty According to the Department of Health, malnutrition and unsanitary living conditions, resulting from extreme poverty, are the most significant causes of disability, especially among children. A DOH report indicates that prevalence of disability among children is highest in urban slum communities and in rural areas where health services are either limited or inaccessible.

receive iron and iodine supplements, as a result of which they give birth to children with such afflictions as goiter, intellectual disability, speech impairment, deafness, and physical differences. Furthermore, the practice of seeking the expertise of hilots or traditional birth attendants in delivering babies can cause accidents that result in disability among newborns. An unstable peace and order situation, particularly in the southern part of the country, in addition to vehicular and industrial accidents, are other causes of disability in the country. Discrimination Society still does not view PWDs as citizens who can contribute usefully despite the presence of impairment. As a result, many would simply chose to stay at home and not attempt to seek employment. It may be their own family and relatives, who feel that these persons have disability and must therefore be taken care of, or the larger community who would not acknowledge that PWDs can be economically active.

Incomplete coverage of registration system Republic Act No. 9442 provides for an identification card system for PWDs, entitling them to such benefits as discounts on health services, entertainment and recreational facilities, and transport services. The National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons, in collaboration with local government units, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, or DSWD, and other organizations, is responsible for the registration of persons with disabilities. Unfortunately, the current registration system is not able to cover all PWDs due to inefficiency of dissemination regarding information on the registration system, and lack of access to public welfare office or other public offices to which persons with disabilities could refer for assistance. Employment For those who are qualified for training at vocational rehabilitation centers, the DSWD provides a 30- to 45-peso daily living allowance. These trainees undergo training lasting from three months to one year. Many PWDs attend skills training at DSWD centers not only to learn but also for the daily living allowance. Due to severe poverty, many of them earn their daily living in the streets by begging or vending. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another cause of disability is the failure of expectant mothers to undergo prenatal check-ups due to concentration of hospitals and health clinics in cities and municipal urban centers. Most pregnant women and lactating mothers do not

The various domestic issues regarding PWDs are remedied by society through different means. For instance, to address the problem in PWDs education, the Philippine government provided special schools such as Jose Fabella School in Mandaluyong City, which admits behaviorally and mentally challenged persons; NOH-School for Crippled Children in Quezon City, which caters to persons with orthopedic disabilities; Philippine National School for the Blind in Pasay City, which educates visually impaired persons; and Philippine

School for the Deaf, also in Pasay City, which accepts students with hearing impairment. Another remedy is through House Bill No. 1039 or the proposed VAT exemption to PWDs, in addition to the 20% discount off goods and services which they presently enjoy. The House Committee has already agreed to refer the Bill to a technical working group for further refinement, and that it is seeking clarifications from the DOH for assurance that the VAT privilege will not be abused. Private efforts are also taken through corporate social responsibility. SM Supermalls, owned by SM Prime Holdings, Inc., through their SM Cares initiative have implemented a program focused on PWDs. This includes seminars to transform employees as advocates of PWDs and wellness stores to employ visually challenged therapists. Amusement facilities are adapted to allow PWDs to enjoy them, even with their impairments. For instance, bowling lanes are fitted with assistive devices for those in wheelchairs (handle bars) and for the blind (directions in Braille); and screenings of Sensory Friendly Movies are regularly held for children with autism. SM also partners with PWD-oriented organizations such as Parents Advocate for Visually Impaired Children, AKAP Pinoy, Autism Society Philippines, and Down Syndrome Association of the Philippines. Another example of corporate social responsibility is the Lamoiyan Corporation which regularly employs deaf workers. To date, these employees make up about 30% of its work force. It has also been in a longstanding partnership with Deaf Evangelistic Alliance Foundation, Inc., which focuses on the education, training, and rehabilitation of the deaf and their communities, particularly those from marginalized communities. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------Whether a PWD is from Asia, America, Europe or Africa, the issues confronting him boil down to these general categories: infrastructure, communication, employment, education, and lack of political will. Infrastructure The lack of infrastructure such as ramps, hand rails and near pavements, which supports daily and convenient operation in society, is a major adversary of disabled persons. It is easy for persons without disabilities to climb steep stairs, fit in tight cubicles, or even hop onto elevated entrances. The same is generally not true for PWDs. Audio-visual announcements, spaces for wheelchair users, slip-resistant floorings and other modified equipment must also be available to them, in order that they will not need help or require lesser help at least. Unfortunately, not all infrastructures are not built to address this need, mainly because of the additional cost needed for it.

Communication Communication is also a prevalent issue faced by PWDs, especially because physical impairment is the common case among persons with disabilities. People who have communication difficulties are the ones who endure hardships in socialization. Since communication is based on language and speech, there is a misconception that PWDs cannot or do not know how to communicate. Based on that false belief, society tends not to bother to receive or understand what a disabled person is communicating. Employment Employment adds a concern to PWDs by having difficulty in landing a permanent job. There is a prevalent standpoint that disabled persons are incompetent to do a normal persons work, which severely limits their options when it comes to jobs that will give them financial stability. More often than not, disabled persons are homebound because of the position they are in. Because of this, their self-esteem, sense of social respect and dignity are affected, making them suffer an allaround life disability. Education Creating special schools may not even be a solution but a mistake. In special schools, children are taught in a modified way to absorb knowledge but this will tend to limit the ability of a child to learn what normal children can learn because this treatment indirectly exhibits the disability of a child. The problem is compounded when children coming from these special schools cannot integrate themselves into higher-education courses because they were taught differently from normal children. As for mainstream schools, educators are often not capable of handling disabled students admitted to their class because they are trained only to facilitate classes of normal children. PWDs enrolled in mainstream schools may also find it difficult to study alongside their non-disabled peers because they came from a special school wherein the teaching methods and learning aids are very different. Lack of political will Finally, having political will is essential. Even though there are laws passed to ameliorate the situation of PWDs, no change will be effected if they are not implemented thoroughly; that is, if political will is lacking. Solutions put forth by States will be useless if not spearheaded with attitude and conviction to achieve such purpose. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------One of the most popular remedies to the issues of persons with disabilities in the international setting is the Paralympic Games, held every two years, alternating between summer and winter Games. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the global governing body of the Paralympic Movement, is tasked with organizing said Games. Its vision is to enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence

and inspire and excite the world. To enable it is meant that they aim to create conditions for athlete empowerment; and by inspire and excite they mean to say that they strive to touch the heart of all people for a more equitable society. The Paralympic Movement offers sport opportunities for athletes that have a primary impairment belonging to one of the following 10 types: impaired muscle power, impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency, leg length difference, short stature, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, vision impairment, and intellectual impairment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues describes indigenous peoples or IPs as the descendants of those who inhabited a country or geographical region at the time when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived, with the new arrivals eventually becoming the dominant population. Given how world history is characterized by repeat instances of conquest, occupation, war, and settlement, it is unsurprising that IPs are to be found all over the globe, from the Arctic to the South Pacific. Examples include the Sami people of Scandinavia, and the Ainu people of Japan. The Philippines is the only country in Asia that has officially used the term indigenous people and recognized their rights. However, according to the Asian Development Bank, despite efforts to define indigenous peoples, there is still no consensus as to who exactly are the indigenous peoples in the Philippines. This is due to the absence of up-to-date cultural mapping in this country. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------Spanish era The concept of indigenous peoples in the Philippines originated from the minorization of people during the Spanish colonization. The Spanish colonizers forced their subjects to live in pueblos through a policy called reduccion. Those natives that refused to live in these pueblos retreated into the hinterlands and were called remontados and infieles. The Igorots of the Cordillera, who put up a strong resistance against colonial invasion against their territories, were called tribus indipendientes by the Spanish chroniclers. They were also labelled as barbarians, pagans, and other derogatory names. Not long after, the indios internalized these prejudices against indigenous peoples as well. The Spaniards introduced laws that opposed customary concepts of land use and ownership. The Regalian doctrine, through a policy of encomienda, awarded lands from the King of Spain but administered by an encomiendero who was tasked to collect taxes and enforced the economic policies of the Crown. The Maura Law was later enacted, reiterating that all pueblo lands were protected lands. Thus, they could not be alienated because they belonged to the King. In spite of these colonial policies, the unassimilated indigenous peoples

continued their customary practices with regard to land and resources. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------American era The Americans continued to uphold the Regalian doctrine which continued the dispossession of the indigenous people of all claims to their land. They enacted laws that reinforced the states control over the public domain. To further strengthen their hold over the islands resources, the Public Land Act was passed, declaring that all lands shall be subject to the Torrens system, and empowering the state to issue to any legitimate claimant a proof of title over a parcel of land. The Mining Law of 1905 was put into effect. The Land Registration Act of 1905 institutionalized the Torrens titling system as the sole basis of land ownership in the Philippines. Furthermore, the Public Land Acts of 1913, 1919, and 1925, through which Mindanao and all other areas of fertile lands that the State considered unoccupied, unreserved, or otherwise unappropriated public lands, became available to homesteaders and corporations, despite the fact that the indigenous peoples were in these lands. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------Constitutional provisions The 1987 Constitution also retained the Regalian doctrine. However, it also contained provisions that recognized the rights of indigenous cultural communities within the framework of national unity and development, under Article II, Section 22, and the creation of autonomous regions in Muslim Mindanao and in the Cordillera, under Article X, Sections 15-19. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------Hoping to cure the domestic issues regarding indigenous peoples, the Congress enacted Republic Act No. 8371, or the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act or IPRA. This created the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples as the primary government agency for the formulation and implementation of policies, plans and programs to promote and protect the rights and well-being of the IPs and their ancestral domains as well as their rights thereto. The IPRA also provides that development programs, projects, and activities must be developed along the fourfold agenda of recognition and protection of ancestral domain, self-governance and empowerment, cultural integrity, and social justice and human rights. Recognition and protection of ancestral domain The law enumerated several rights of IPs over their ancestral domains. These include right of ownership over ancestral lands, right to develop and manage lands and natural resources, right to stay in territories and not to be displaced therefrom, right to regulate entry of migrants and other entities, right to safe and clean water, right to claim parts of

reservations, and right to resolve conflicts according to customary law. Self-governance and empowerment The State shall continue to strengthen and support the autonomous regions created under the Constitution as they may require or need. The State shall likewise encourage other IPs not included in the Muslim Mindanao and the Cordilleras to use the form and content of their ways of life as may be compatible with the fundamental rights defined in the Constitution and other internationally recognized human rights. Cultural integrity The State shall, with due recognition of their distinct characteristics and identity, accord to the IPs the rights, protections and privileges enjoyed by the rest of the citizenry. It shall extend to them the same employment rights, opportunities, basic services, educational and other rights and privileges available to every member of the society. Accordingly, the State shall likewise ensure that the employment of any form of force or coercion against them shall be dealt with by law. Social justice and human rights The law contains specific provisions which ensure that IPs, just like other human beings, will enjoy right to life, development, and civil liberties, political rights, freedom of association, non-discrimination or equal protection, right to peace and social justice. It guarantees indigenous peoples right to basic social services, as well as the right to employment, vocational training, housing, sanitation, health, social security, infrastructure, transportation, and communication. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------Whichever country they may be from, indigenous peoples are inevitably among the neglected segments of that society. They are typically marginalized and excluded from the mainstream political, economic, and social spheres. It is precisely for this reason that the main goal of the International Decade of the Worlds Indigenous People (19942004) was the strengthening of international cooperation for the solution of problems faced by indigenous peoples. Poverty UN characterizes IPs as among the poorest of the poor, the most vulnerable and the most deprived groups of society. They constitute only about 5% of the world population, but account for 15% of the worlds poor. Worse, in some countries the poverty gap between indigenous and nonindigenous populations is widening. In Latin America, a much larger portion of the indigenous population lives below the poverty line compared to the nonindigenous. Poverty drives indigenous females in Asia to work in the sex trade, and it is observed that majority of women

trafficked across borders in Southeast Asia belong to indigenous communities. Impaired health As a direct result of industrial development, land and water are polluted and natural resources become scarce, and IPs suffer from malnutrition and pollution-related diseases. Due to lack of basic health infrastructures, a high proportion of indigenous children die of easily cured respiratory and intestinal infections in Ecuador; infant mortality among IPs is thrice the national average, and an IP lives 20 years shorter than a non-IP in Australia; Maori males are twice more likely to suffer respiratory illness, skin infections, and heart disease than non-Maoris in New Zealand. HIV/AIDS infection rates are significantly higher in IP populations, especially among indigenous women. Forced resettlement and transition to modern lifestyles not only translate to increased incidence of lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes and obesity, they also correlate with increased rates of alcoholism and depression in IP populations. Low level of education The source of the illiteracy problem of IPs is two-fold: not only do they have less access to mainstream education than the rest of society, the educational systems that are available to them often do not take into account their traditional and cultural values, and basic school materials are often lacking, making instruction difficult. Dropout rates are high among indigenous girls in particular, due to unfriendly school environments, gender discrimination, school-based violence and sometimes sexual abuse. Non-protection of intellectual and cultural property rights Their cultural artifacts are taken without permission and displayed in foreign museums. Profits made by selling pharmaceutical products based on medicinal plants discovered by IPs are not shared with them. Traditional stories and artwork are borrowed without compensation because they are not patented or there is no legal framework for ownership of such things. Infringements on right to environment Biological resources have been patented, leaving IPs unable to use plants that they had been openly and freely using for generations. Climate change and the increase in global temperatures have adversely affected the IPs way of life in the Arctic region. New agricultural technologies, such as pesticides and fertilizers, have destroyed self-sustaining ecosystems, rendering them unusable for IPs. Unemployment In Canada, the unemployment rate among the native population averages 35-75%. In certain communities, unemployment can reach 100%. In Australia, nearly 40% of

the IP population is unemployed about four times the national average (9%). Forcible acquisition of ancestral lands Even in those countries that provide for IP land rights, land titling and demarcation procedures are delayed and forgotten because of changes in political leadership and policies. Even where IPs do possess legal title, their lands are often leased out by the state as mining or logging concessions without their consultation, let alone their free and prior informed consent. Violence IPs to be beaten or killed during evictions, or to intimidate them into giving up their rights. Violence is especially prevalent in settlements, where they are forced to compete for limited resources. IPs are more likely to suffer from violent crime in urban areas, as well as more likely to commit suicide or be incarcerated, due to separation from their community coupled with lack of acceptance in said urban areas. Cultural losses Due to eviction, as well as to forced resettlement and assimilation into the dominant society, indigenous languages are dying out, and traditional knowledge is lost together with them. Also due to diaspora, clanship and cultural identity are lost. Exploitation of ancestral lands may also lead to destruction of sacred sites. Restricted political rights IPs are often not recognized as a legitimate group, and are thus restricted from political fora in which they might defend their rights. Births of indigenous children are often unregistered, depriving them of rights that would have been available to them as citizens. Racism Discrimination against IPs manifest in many ways. These include acts such as unnecessary questioning by the police, condescending attitudes of teachers to students, rudeness from receptionists in government offices, and making fun of their culture in mass media. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------The remedy to the international issues regarding indigenous peoples is through technical cooperation projects. The Division for Social Policy and Development, a branch of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the UN Secretariat, is responsible for technical cooperation projects, which aim to *strengthen+ social groups capacity to achieve well-being through greater inclusion and more active participation in society. Technical cooperation projects serve as the interface between global policies and national action international agreements form the basis of strategies at the

government level; and in turn, experiences gained at the country level help develop inter-governmental policymaking. In December 2005, the UN General Assembly approved one such project concerning IPs: Engaging indigenous women: Local-government capacity-building through new technologies in Latin America. The project was implemented in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. Its goals were to elevate indigenous womens self-awareness and esteem in critical areas, improve participation in decision-making processes, and promote self-affirmation of cultural and gender identities.