Dear Fellow Advocates for Disability- Inclusion,

Thank you for signifying your support to our petition. In line with our advocacy, we are sharing with you the updated version of the recommendations for the government given the changes that have transpired during the duration of the enhanced community quarantine. Please see below the full text of the recommendation as of April 3, 2020.  

RECOMMENDATION TO THE GOVERNMENT FROM THE PHILIPPINE COALITION ON THE UNCRPD FOR A DISABILITY-INCLUSIVE RESPONSE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC TO ADDRESS THE NEGATIVE IMPACT TO HOUSEHOLDS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

            The COVID-19 pandemic created a global crisis that affected the Philippines. Considering the socio-economic status of persons with disabilities in the Philippines, many households of persons with disabilities and those with children with disabilities declare that they are in need of financial support to handle the crisis that they are facing.
 
            The National Disability Prevalence Survey[1] conducted by Philippine Statistics Authority in 2016 identified the work status of persons with disabilities - thirteen percent never worked, 38% currently not working, 5% working with no pay, 18% self-employed, 3% working for private households, 15% working in private establishments, 4% in government and 3% are employed in family-owned business. In totality, 78% belongs to unemployed or informally employed, while 19% who are formally employed in government and private establishments might also be affected by measures undertaken by their employer that could result to loss of income. In totality, 97 percent of the population of persons with disabilities are requiring social protection measures to address the negative impact of the quarantine being implemented.
 
            Considering that the needs of persons with disabilities are greater than those with no disabilities because of disability-related factors such as maintenance medicine, personal assistance, more expensive mode of transportation and assistive products, the income they require to have is higher than persons without disabilities. Additionally, findings indicated in the 2016 National Disability Prevalence Survey are leading us to believe that households of persons with disabilities and those with children with disabilities are one of the most at risk in this period of crisis. 

 
The quick survey launched via web by Center for Disaster Preparedness[2]provides a quick overview of the situation of persons with disabilities who participated in the survey. As of March 27, 2020, the survey was able to collect 2,048 respondents. Out of 11,517 members of households, 2,905 persons with disabilities were identified.  One thousand two hundred eighty-six households declare that they need financial support. Eighty seven respondents say that they do not have current needs while the community quarantine is in effect. Among the concerns raised by the respondents include: (a) medicines/maintenance medicines (811); (b) therapy (407); (c) accessible transportation (399); (d) personal assistance (290); (e) assistive device (234); (f) psychosocial support (168); (g) hospitalization (163) etc. Please note that the team that created the quick survey also receive feedback that many people could not access the quick survey because they do not have access to internet to answer the survey. The result of the quick survey is also in line with the findings cited by the National Disability Prevalence Survey report.
           
The disability sector appreciates the Memorandum Circular No. 2020-066 issued by Department of Interior and Local Government directing the Local Government Units to ensure that persons with disabilities are able to access adequate food; are taking into consideration the nutritional requirement; and allow the use of transportation services.

We also appreciate the Joint Memorandum Circular No. 1 series of 2020 providing special guidelines on the provision of social amelioration measures to the most affected residents of the areas under enhanced community quarantine.
 
            In light of the current situation of persons with disabilities and children with disabilities, it is very important that the government undertake social protection measures to ensure that persons with disabilities and their households including children with disabilities and their families receive adequate assistance to manage the economic hardship that persons with disabilities and their households are now experiencing. In particular, persons with disabilities and their households and those families with children with disabilities must be supported to cover their disability-related extra cost so that they will effectively manage the risks that they are now exposed to.

Furthermore, the current poverty targeting is based on definition where disability-related needs are not taken into account, resulting to exclusion of persons with disabilities and their households whose standards of living is very low because of many unmet needs which is important  to quality of life.
 
            Various international organizations such as the World Health Organization, the International Labor Organization, International Disability Alliance, among others are recommending to government to address the needs of vulnerable groups as a matter of priority because of various risks that they are now exposed to[3].
 
Thus, we are RECOMMENDING specific measures be undertaken to ease the negative effects of the community quarantine by ensuring that persons with disabilities and their households including those with children with disabilities in their family are taken into account in the social protection measures by:
 
1.     Making the information and communication channels accessible and understandable to all persons with disabilities and children with disabilities such as ensuring that TV program have sign language inset and visible all the time to Deaf, Website accessible to people who are blind or with low vision, etc.;

2.     Utilizing all available data, in particular, the following:
a.     the Listahanan database of the Department of Social Welfare and Development as main source of information of who are persons with disabilities;
b.     the records of every LGU issuing Persons with Disability IDcardsto complement the database of Listahanan;
c.     the data of organizations of persons with disabilities, organizations of parents of children with disabilities, and organizations for persons and children with disabilities to complement the database of Listahanan;

3.     Including all persons with disabilities and their households as beneficiaries of cash assistance and should not be lesser than what is provided to the general population;

4.     Including all persons with disabilities and their households in the provision of relief goods or food vouchers provided by the national and local government;

5.     Providing cash assistance to cover disability-related extra costs in addition to the cash amelioration program and food distribution provided to persons and children with disabilities. These needs include medicines/maintenance medicines, therapy, transportation, personal assistance, assistive devices/products, psychosocial support among others. These additional needs are crucial to mitigating the impact of community quarantine;

6.     Including mask, menstrual, sanitation and hygiene kits in the assistance being provided;

7.     Undertaking measures to safeguard children and persons with disabilities and their households to prevent domestic violence, harassment, exploitation, abuses and all forms of gender-based violence; and

8.     Lastly, to setup an effective redress mechanism that is accessible to persons with disabilitiesto monitor their situation and to ensure that they are not excluded whether intentionally or unintentionally. This mechanism should be specific only to persons with disabilities to ensure timely response to their needs so that it could avoid potential harm due to delay in response.

In this extraordinary difficult time, the government and other actors play crucial role in ensuring that people who are very vulnerable are not left out. Many households with children and persons with disabilities fall on the cracks of the targeting system that are being utilized because of various factors. It is important that affirmative action to target persons with disabilities and children with disabilities are being undertaken to ensure that they will also survive the crisis that our country is experiencing right now.

[1]National Disability Prevalence Survey (Moel Functioning Survey) 2016, PSA
[2]https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/1OjE6Q32qwpzsp9atbHWCFLP4SpuVfp-5/page/hCNJB?s=hoABGjDf56I(last accessed on March 27, 2020)
[3]See https://www.who.int/who-documents-detail/disability-considerations-during-the-covid-19-outbreak;https://www.social-protection.org/gimi/RessourcePDF.action?id=56001; http://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/sites/default/files/ida_recommendations_for_disability-inclusive_covid19_response_final.pdf