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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe UP Diliman College of Social Sciences and Philosophy Student Council (UPD CSSP SC), together with the UP Diliman College of Mass Communication Student Council (UPD CMC SC), proposed \u201ca resolution calling for intensified efforts and campaigns for a more inclusive university especially for disabled stakeholders,\u201d which was adopted during the second day of the 53rd General Assembly of Student Councils (GASC) on August 27, Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
READ: http:\/\/bitly.ws\/tLQJ<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n A long struggle towards inclusivity<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite constituting 15%<\/a> of the world population, disabled people have long been marginalized, despite a supposed \u201caccessible\u201d education in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Within and outside the University of the Philippines, however, the neoliberal status quo of Philippine education sees no market-oriented utility to provide better conditions for those excluded from the world designed for \u201cabled bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in the times when such concerns resist emerging, the response is mere tokenism\u2014underutilized provisions that appear destined to remain on paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The resolution noted that the Philippines is a signatory of the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities<\/a> since 2008; the Accessibility Law<\/a>, which aims to accommodate disabled people with inclusive establishments and other services, was signed in 1983; more laws were passed, including Republic Act (RA) No. 7277<\/a> and later amended by RA 9442<\/a>, RA 10754<\/a>, and RA 11228<\/a>, to further the necessary rights such as VAT exemptions and mandatory PhilHealth coverage; and through Presidential Decree No. 1509<\/a>, the National Council for Disability Affairs (NCDA) was established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nonetheless, \u201cderiving from the lack of budget for both education and disability, accessibility implementations remain lacking in Philippine education, leading to institutions which largely other disabled students and limit integrative intervention,\u201d the resolution lamented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier, the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged the Department of Education (DepEd) due to P4.527 million worth of deficiencies in the use of the budget intended for the Basic Education-Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP) for school years 2020\u20132021 and 2021\u20132022 despite the ongoing educational crisis amid the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n READ: http:\/\/bitly.ws\/tLQS<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Amid the issue of corruption, DepEd promised that \u201cno student will be left behind.\u201d However disabled students are continually excluded from the discourses on developing programs and services for students during remote learning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n READ: http:\/\/bitly.ws\/tMAT<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Moreover, the university is facing more-than-half worth of cuts in its proposed budget for FY 2023. Of the proposed P44.149B, only P21.854B will be allocated to the university. This, will the Office of the President will receive an initially non-deliberated P9B worth of funds\u2014the majority of which is to be distributed for the use of national security. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Polytechnic University of the Philippines, the largest public university by population in the country with over 70,000 students, is also threatened with a P129 million budget cut for 2023 by the DBM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n READ: http:\/\/bitly.ws\/tEBQ<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n With the continuous cutback on the right to free accessible quality education, \u201cinclusive education accommodations remain insufficient to fulfill the additional needs of disabled students, especially in institutions where space is shared between those with and without disabilities,\u201d the resolution noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What it means to be disabled<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In a debate among student councils regarding the said resolution during the assembly, a search for the right term ensued. Is it \u201cdisabled,\u201d \u201cwith special needs,\u201d \u201cpeople with additional needs,\u201d or others?<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the authors from UPD CSSP SC contended, \u201c[w]hen I’m disabled, my needs are not special. They\u2019re just needs. I don’t want someone to call me a person with disabilities, I want someone to know I am disabled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n UPD CSSP SC Chair Vayne Altapascine del Rosario argued that a social approach by disabled people themselves, rather than a medical approach, should be used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[B]y using the term \u2018disabled,\u2019 we want to create something new\u2026Every single thing that I experience is colored by disability. We cannot separate the person and the disability\u2026We don\u2019t want others to speak for us. We talk for ourselves,\u201d del Rosario asserted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hence, the body adopted the term \u201cdisabled stakeholder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This reveals the thorough nature of disabilities\u2014that the concept of disabilities must not be locked inside the medical echo chamber. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To be disabled is a lived experience caused not merely by physiological characteristics but especially by how society, and how it is insisted to be designed, responds to its disabled members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, a disabled person, for instance, in the domain of mobility is not so merely due to one\u2019s physical impairment, but rather, due to a lack of usable ramps, elevators, and other necessary accommodating building designs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The resolution suitably underscored the socio-political background of disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[T]he colonial, commercialized, and anti-democratic orientation of the [Philippine education] remains a means by which systemic shortcomings are put into force, especially imposed by over-bureaucratization of definitions of disability, funding restraints on research items especially involving disability, and the slow institutionalization of important offices related to the [Philippine education],\u201d the resolution stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Disabling the disabled<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The University, a supposed school for the masses, exhibits the same problem, having been flagged by the COA in 2011 for non-compliance with the national expenditure\u2019s 1% allotment for projects for PWDs and senior citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although there have been some leaps toward inclusivity, for instance through UP Diliman Health Service\u2019s Students With Additional Needs (SWANS) program, they are nonetheless underdeveloped, evidenced by the lack of assorted accommodations; underfunded, evidenced by the lack of resources; and underpublicized, evidenced by the lack of benefiting students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Likewise, the system-wide Student Wellness Subsidy Program is also underutilized due to similar reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It should also be noted, as did the resolution, that some mental health conditions can be debilitating or other disabilities, especially in the University insufficient of necessary services for its disabled stakeholders, can induce mental health problems, which can also be further debilitating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Philippine Collegian earlier reported that UP Diliman PsycServ, currently a \u201cspecial project\u201d under the chancellor\u2019s office that aims to mitigate the mental health needs of the UP Diliman constituents, is struggling with inundated service requests amid the lack of resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n READ: http:\/\/bitly.ws\/tMAt<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The article noted that many, if not most, mental health grievances are due to the pandemic and the current remote setup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The resolution also underlined, \u201cin light of the pandemic, difficulties from disability have been exacerbated by the University\u2019s exclusively remote learning policies, uneven implementations of compassionate academic policy, and often-limited or late dissemination of health policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n