Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in the region are now actively participating in the development efforts, as evidenced in the testimonies of members of the Regional Council on Disability Affairs (RCDA), in its second quarter conference called recently by the DSWD.

Representatives of the various provincial councils on disability affairs bared that one of their accomplishments is “greening” the countryside to support the government’s National Greening Program (NGP). The NGP is by virtue of Executive Order No. 26 issued by President Benigno S. Aquino III – ordering and declaring the implementation of a National Greening Program as a government priority.

The program calls for the planting of 1.5 billion trees covering about 1.5 million hectares by 2016.

Patrio Barca, the focal person for PWDs program of Leyte province reported that the 11,000-member provincial federation of PWDs has engaged in planting “bakhaw” trees in the past quarter. Arnel Baldos, the president of the said chapter, emphasized that treeplanting will remain a major concern for the group, such that it will be able to help contribute to the realization of the goal of said law.

A representative of the Ormoc City Social Welfare and Development Office revealed that its local council has counted treeplanting as one of the planned activities for the 34th National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Week celebration, specifically on July 20 of this year.

The RCDA has also set a treeplanting activity on July 21 in Tacloban City.

The Council is an inter-agency body composed of government agencies, mandated as the governments’ focal entity on disability-related concerns at the regional level. It is organized under the auspices of the National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA), an attached agency of the DSWD.