Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Person with Disability Act not yet fully implemented in Leyte

TACLOBAN CITY – Republic Act 9442 or the Person with Disability Act is not yet fully implemented in the province of Leyte, according to the result of the committee hearing that was conducted by the committee on social services headed by the Board Deborah Bertulfo.

In her committee report she made during their last session, Bertulfo divulged that based on the hearing they conducted, among the reasons why said law is not yet fully implemented is that most of the local government units in the province are not aware of the law.

“The focal person of person with disabilities of the Provincial Social Welfare Office Alma Mañosa said that RA 9442 is not fully implemented in the municipal level due to lack of advocacy,” Bertulfo said.

However, in the provincial level, RA 9442 is being undertaken in different fora and in different quarterly conferences, Bertulfo said.

Bertulfo also cited that based in their talked with Barta, most of the buildings in the entire province of Leyte are not yet acceptable to people with disabilities as there are some buildings that cannot provide access for exclusive use of persons with disabilities.

“This means that there are buildings that have not yet complied with the provisions of the law, that provies access ramps,” she said.

Bertulfo added Barta also informed them that in the implementation of providing discount privilege for senior citizens for medicine, only two pharmacies provide such privilege, the Mercury Drug and the Rose Pharmacy.

With this result, the comittee recommended for the province further dialogue should be conducted and to come up with a provincial ordinance for the enforcement of said law.

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