RESOLUTION CREATING A SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 23, 2010
Fifteenth Congress
First Regular Session
House Resolution No. 496
WHEREAS, persons with disabilities, such as those with attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, behavior problem, chronically ill, hearing impaired, learning disabled, mentally challenged, orthopedically handicapped, speech defective, slow learner, visually impaired, among others, comprise a considerable segment of the population;
WHEREAS, persons with disabilities face difficulties dealing with major life activities that include walking, talking, hearing, seeing, breathing, learning, performing manual tasks, and caring for oneself, in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being;
WHEREAS, according to the definition developed by the World Health Organization, disability is not something that person has but, instead, something that occurs outside of the person – the person has a functional limitation. Disability occurs in the interaction between a person, his or her functional ability, and the environment. A person’s environment can be the physical environment, communication environment, information environment, and social and policy environment.
WHEREAS, it is a stark reality that persons with disabilities encounter enormous challenges, not to mention direct physical abuses and discriminatory practices, if and when they compete socially, culturally and educationally, or when they leave the comfort of their homes to places of public accommodation such as restaurants, retail stores, libraries, and hospitals as well as commercial facilities such as offices buildings, warehouses, and factories, such that their conditions usually require additional investments in time, money and other resources from their family, educators and trainors when adopting learning curricula, methodology, facilities and equipment that are not normally present in educational and training institutions;
WHEREAS, if government were to truly help persons with disabilities express their full potential as human beings, there is a need for social services workers, planners, property owners and transportation and communication operators to provide in the design of buildings, facilities and equipment certain variations to allow persons with disabilities gain access on built environment and transportation, training on employment and livelihood, auxiliary social services, education, health, information, communication and technology;
WHEREAS, while the Philippine government has not been remiss in adopting legal frameworks that benefit persons with disabilities in accordance with our cultural practice to care for all members of the family and from international documents and commitments recognizing the rights of persons with disabilities, there is a strong clamor from persons with disabilities and their families not only for full implementation of existing laws and programs but also for focused studies, adoption, expansion, enhancement, and review of policies and programs that will respond to local and international trends and new opportunities in the promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED AS IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, to create a Special Committee on Persons with Disabilities in the House of Representatives;
RESOLVED FURTHER THAT, the Special Committee on Perons with Disabilities shall exercise the duties and powers of a standing committee and shall have jurisdiction over all matters directly and principally relating to policies and programs to protect and promote the rights and welfare of persons with disabilities, prevent the causes of disabilities, promote rehabilitation and create political, cultural and social environments that engender equalization of opportunities among all persons.
Adopted.
ORIGINAL SIGNED
DAVID L. KHORepresentative
Party List, Senior Citizens
3 Responses to “RESOLUTION CREATING A SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES”
Got something to say?
may i seek advice with my desire joining the special committee on disability in the house of representative? with all modesty, i am a dentist by profession w/ a masters in special education. just wondering if i could apply in the committee given the expertise in the field aside from having a handicapping condition – and, being able to relate fully to other disabilities. if and when too, you may find such skill a need in the organization, please let me know that i may send other pertinent data sought for.
thank you very much.
dr gerry catalan DMD, MA Sped
mobile 09285023450
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Jojo Padlan Casiano Reply:
April 11th, 2017 at 1:06 pm
@dr gerry catalan,
Hi Dr Gerry Catalan, Are you the same Gerry Catalan who went to Pre Dent School in MCU?
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i am a visually impared Filipino residing in Japan.
i lost my eyesight when I was 16 years old due to tuberculose meningitis(8years ago).
Because my mom is in Japan, I had a chance to come here to seek for some medical treatment hoping that there would be much changes than when I was in the Philippines.
While taking some treatments, my doctor introduced to me a school for people with disabilities that I could go to take some trainings for me to become an independent person.
I took different trainings such as walking, commuting, cooking, basic computer, english and japanese braille, etc.
After graduating that school, i went to a vocational school for the blind to take a computer course for me to be trained and find a job.
I took the course for 1 year and 5 months.
At present, I am working in an organization who helps visually and hearing impared people by producing captions/subtitles and audio descriptions for movie films.
By having such wonderful experiences, I do hope that there would also be some services in the Philippines for people with disabilities such as “daily living training support” for a disabled person to become independent, “wvocational trainings” for a disabled person to be trained and find his/her job.
Last December, I went to the Philippines to spend my Christmas vacation.
I was so surprised to know that discounts for transportation fees, foods, medicines, and even for the groceries of a person with disability is being implemented. That’s nice!
As a staff of an organization who supports the visually and hearing impared persons, I want to know if there are some services that is being done in the Philippines for a blind or deaf to access media?
For example, as what our organization do, we have this “barrier-free movie screening support” that is regularly done every Sunday in one of the theaters here in Japan.
Barrier-free movie screening is a screening of a movie with captions/subtitles and audio descriptions on it.
By having this services, people who are deaf or blind, even though they couldn’t hear or see could also enjoy watching movies by reading the captions/subtitles for the deaf, and by listening to the film’s audio descriptions for the blind.
As a Filipino, I really want to know if there are such services done in the Philippines.
I hope I could receive some answers about this matter.
Thank you.
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