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The persons with disabilities (PWDs) sector strongly advocates for safe and convenient transportation.
Jovencio ?Nonoy? Concha, a PWD, reported the sector?s output during the plenary at the 5th area consultation in Cebu City on the formulation of the 2nd National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP) held last Oct. 8 and 9 at the Montebello Hotel.
Concha, who is also president of PWDs Advocating for Rights and Empowerment, a non-government organization, said accessibility, safety and convenience of PWDs is ?terribly wanting in this country even if the accessibility law has already been passed.?
?Buildings, comfort rooms, transportation (buses, boats and planes) and even roads do not have accessibility features for PWDs and nobody seems to mind. Nobody has been sanctioned nor fined,? Concha said.
His report also included disaster preparedness, response and rehabilitation measures for PWDs specifically access to evacuation centers, rescue and relief.
His sector hopes that separate lanes for PWDs in roads and highways will be incorporated in the future infrastructure.
The CEDAW group (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) emphasized the need to implement the anti-Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC) laws that would include counseling for perpetrators and the right to efficient and effective redress mechanisms.
Dr. Rose Asong, the group?s presenter, said there was a need to address tech-related issues such as cyber sex, internet brides, sex videos and text dating as well as the dire need for a unified database system on VAWC.
Asong, who is also the gender coordinator of University of the Philippines-Visayas Cebu College, reported that her group also saw the need to fast-track the institutionalization of gender equality measures as specified in the Magna Carta for Women.
The group said this would include the repeal of schools policy against admitting pregnant female students, unmarried women teachers and other school personnel.
?This is a violation of their right to education and right to work,? Asong reported.
The group that tackled the rights against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment had Fr. Nestor Cabir, a chaplain of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in region 8 as its reporter.
Fr. Cabir?s report was about congested jails and inhumane conditions of inmates that resulted in hazing and other cruel practices.
His group said there was a need to integrate all the correctional institutions under one agency because of a fragmented approach to jail management.
?There are jails managed by local government units, other jails by the Bureau of Corrections and some jails are managed by the BJMP,? Cabir reported.
Other issues included eviction and demolition of informal settlers leading to psychological and mental torture; exploitation of children in any form specifically bringing children to rallies, armed conflict, drug business and other environment hazardous to children?s health and preservation.
Tortures and purges of insurgents (CPP-NPA); infliction of physical harm to arrested persons; and lack of government hospitals and facilities for the poor were some of the group?s concerns.
Reynante Nicor, 13 years old, from Euphrasia Development Center, a non-government organization in Cebu City, reported that the group identified seven basic issues that included concerns on the rights of children to a friendly environment with access to education, especially more SPED schools in the municipalities.
Nicor said his group underscored the right of children to a name, identity and nationality because of the increasing number of children that are not registered.
Nicor added that under the Survival and Protection rights, there was a need to establish a database system of trafficked children as well as the protection and prevention of teens from early pregnancy through sex education in schools.
Norman Amante, another child participant reported on the absence of facilities for those children in conflict with the law (CICL) especially now that the Juvenile Justice Law mandates that no child shall be in prison for any crime.
Amante said the group also recommended that the age of exemption from criminal responsibility of children should be lowered to 9 instead of 15.
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) group presented a 10-point agenda to include the integration of ICESCR standards in development planning at the regional, provincial and municipal levels.
The group also said there is a need to review existing laws on forced evictions; giving priority to health concerns and to manage health workers? out-migration and the rights of workers to safe and healthy working conditions.
As far as education is concerned, the group said, a larger budget must be allocated to build calamity resistant schools.
The same round of area consultations will be done in General Santos City and in Cagayan de Oro City after which all the inputs will be consolidated, reviewed and validated for presentation in a national human rights summit in December in Manila.
The end result of the process is the government?s action plan to promote, respect and fulfill its human rights commitments.
