The Philippine Registry for Persons with Disabilities
National Center for Disease Prevention and Control
Degenerative Diseases Office
Department of Health
September 27, 2005

Rationale & Significance

The Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines recognizes every Filipino citizen’s right to health. Recognizing this basic constitutional right, the government has worked to ensure that the role and contributions of Filipinos with disabilities in nationbuilding are given the appropriate attention by the international community. Last July 31, 2002, the Philippines issued a statement and assured the internatonal community that the country will recognize the protection and promotion of the Rights and Dignity of PWDs. The Philippines was the main sponsor of resolution 56/115 on the “Implementation of the World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons: Towards a society for all inthe 21st Century.”

National policies had been put in place to address the problems of disabled persons. The Accessibility Law or Batasang Pambansa No. 844 was passed to increase the mobility and access of a group of disabled persons to jobs and recreational facilities. Republic Act No.7277, otherwise known as, “An Act Providing for the Rehabilitation, Self-Development, and Self-Reliance of Disabled Persons and Their Integration into the mainstream of Society and for Other Purposes,” was passed in September 1995. The implementing rules and regulations of this Act required the Department of Health to establish a “national registration and reporting system” for specific types of disabilities. With the frontline services of the Department of Health devolved to the local government units, the final implementation of this Act now rests with the Local Government Units (LGUs). The LGUs had also been empowered to implement the Community-Based rehabilitation (CBR) for PWDs by Executive Order 437, dated June 21, 2005. Hence the PRPWD can now serve as a spring board for executing the CBRP.

Materials & Methods

The tool used in the PRPWD was a Personal Information Sheet (PIS) developed by the Classifications and Standards Work Group for the PRPWD. The technique used in collecting the data was the survey. The case definitions, procedures and practices of that survey was contained in the first version of the Manual of Operations for the PRPWD. The PIS were collated at the Municipal or City Health Office, where a summary table for gender, age and locality was generated using a calculator. The tables were either hand carried or sent by snail mail to the Provincial Health Office by the Health Officer or
through the Department of Health’s Local Representatives who sent the provincial summaries to the regions, thence the national office. A national summary was produced using a calculator at the National Office.

Results

Last day for closing the 2004 Registry was April 6, 2005. The results of the registration of PWDs are in Tables 1, 2, and 3.In 2004, a total of 508,270 PWDs registered, representing 12% of the estimated 8.4 million PWDs. Two CHDs were not included due to difficulties in data processing at the National Office.