The Regional Council on Disability Affairs (RCDA) in Region Eight has started conducting activities on the 17th of July to mark the 34 National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Week that suited to the theme, “Mainstreaming Persons with Disabilities in Economic Development.”
Ben Calzado, the focal person for the Persons with Disabilities Program of the DSWD Field Office Eight, which is the secretariat of the Council but had been continuously sitting as chair for years, bared that the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has been designated as head of the RCDA this year.
This is in keeping with the theme, the aim of which is to contribute and promote the full employment of persons with disabilities. It also supports human rights-based initiatives for the economic development of persons with disabilities.
Last July 18, 2012, the RCDA sponsored a Lecture on Occupational Health and Safety in the Workplace, with Labor Employment Officer III, Gracia Caballera, as resource speaker. DOLE Regional Director Exequiel Sarcauga stated in his message that “We’ll continue to be of service. You are our priority.” To give them reassurance, he further said – “ We belong to one community, one society, the Filipino community !”
Close to three hundred persons with disabilities, specifically members of the Tacloban City Federation of Persons with Disabilites and hearing impaired pupils of the Sto. Niño SPED Center attended this activity.
Meanwhile, in the “Harampang Ha P.I.A.” Media Forum attended by the RCDA members, Calzado called on the media to lend help in advocating for the employment of qualified persons with disabilities in government agencies, offices or corporations, with the same compensation, privileges, benefits, incentives, or allowances afforded, as that with able – bodied citizens. He further emphasized that five percent of all casual, emergency, and contractual positions in said entities be reserved for persons with disabilities.
The DSWD has been intensifying its advocacy efforts on the Magna Carta for PWDs or Republic Act 7277, highlighting on the employment and other privileges of persons with disabilities. It has provided some PWDs access to employment like CRISTINA BORROMEO of Bato, Southern Leyte, who works as encoder of the Department of Health Region Eight.
On Monday, July 23, the DOLE will have a Jobs Fair, exclusively for PWDs, at its office compound along Trece Martires Street in Tacloban City.