PERSONS with Disability Affairs Office (Pdao) - Davao said unemployment is still a prevalent concern of persons with disabilities (PWDs) in the city despite the 10 percent hike in employment rate this year.
Pdao officer-in-charge Bong Comiling said statistics came from the report of the National Council on Disability Affairs (NDCA) sent to the City Mayor's Office last March 2017.
Since the number of the PWDs population increase every year, Comiling said unemployment still prevails considering that they are given limited job opportunities.
He said Davao City has an estimated 100,000 unverified PWDs with only 12,000 recorded as registered members in Pdao.
He added that only eight percent of these 12,000 registered Pdao members were provided jobs.
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, Comiling said, has always been reaching out to the PWDs in the city providing them contractual jobs for one to two months in different government offices.
"As what we can see now, our PWDs are mostly associated with massage careers while others are working in government agencies as office cleaners or caretakers," he said.
Comiling said private employers should also consider PWDs in job applications once the qualifications are met, not just merely looking at their disabilities.
"We have PWDs who are good in accounting, engineering, teaching, and even in manual labor. But most companies rarely look at those qualities and only see the physical attributes," Comiling said.
More PWDs welcome
With the data provided by NDCA saying that 88,000 more unregistered PWDs are in the city, Pdao urged barangays to assess their community for a new PWD evaluation.
"PWDs in the city should register in Pdao to avail the services and privileges provided by our government," Comiling said.
Registered PWDs will receive a Pdao identification card they can use in availing a 20 percent discount on medicine purchases, hospitalization, doctor's check-up, restaurant expenses, hotel accommodations, and airplane tickets.
Comiling added that Pdao only accepts new PWD members through the lists provided by the barangays, in which Pdao will later on assess if the names in the lists are existing.
"The verified PWDs in the list will go through an interview in our office and a medical check up to examine their condition," he said.
NDCA considered PWDs as those who have physical or cognitive impairments, suchs as, orthopedic, visual, speech, and hearing impairments; epilepsy, emotional illness, and specific learning disabilities.