A neophyte lawmaker from Quezon City wants to institutionalize a monthly allowance worth P2,000 for Filipino persons with disabilities (PWDs).

Quezon City 5th district Rep. PM Vargas filed House Bill (HB) 5803 or the “Disability Support Allowance Bill”, even as he recognized that PWDs need equitable solutions to overcome the barriers of poverty.
In its explanatory note, HB 5803 stated that persons with disabilities represent at least 12 percent of the adult population in the country and face significant barriers in accessing education and health care, community and citizenship participation, and seizing economic opportunities.
“Because of multiple socio-economic barriers, persons with disabilities have less income and more expenses than those without disabilities, and under the Covid-19 crisis, their economic vulnerabilities have intensified further preventing them and their families from escaping poverty,” Vargas said.
“In a just and humane society that leaves no one behind, it is important that we ensure equitable access and empower persons with disabilities to free themselves and their families from the poverty trap,” he added.
PWDs, as defined in the bill, “include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others”.
Persons who may fall in this definition are, but not limited to, the following: persons with psychosocial disability, person with autism, person with down syndrome, person who are blind, person with low vision, person with hard of hearing, deaf, person with rare diseases, and all other person who will be certified under the proposed disability assessment and determination system.
The Disability Support Allowance Bill was first filed in the 18th Congress by Vargas’s brother and predecessor, former Rep. Alfred Vargas. The first version of the bill focused on socio-economic status, instead of age, but remained pending in the committee level.
For the current 19th Congress, the measure is being pushed by advocacy groups Life Haven Center for Independent Living, Nationwide Organization of Visually-Impaired Empower Ladies (NOVEL), and the Philippine Coalition on United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.