House bill to create job placement office for persons with disabilities
TWO LEGISLATORS filed a bill that seeks to establish an office to help persons with disabilities (PWDs) find jobs.
Representatives Horacio P. Suansing and Estrellita B. Suansing filed House Bill No. 1092, which will become the Persons with Disability Employment Facilitation Office (PWDEFO) Act if passed. It will require provinces and key cities to establish a PWDEFO to offer employment facilitation services for PWDs.
“The United Nations has also called upon government agencies all over the world to develop and provide the needed programs to promote the welfare of persons with disabilities in their proclamation of the ‘Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons’ from 1903 to 2002 and its extension to another decade from 2003 to 2012, which emphasized a paradigm shift from a charity-based approach to a rights-based approach to disability,” according to the bill’s explanatory note.
One of the functions of the PWDEFO will be to encourage employers to regularly submit to the office a list of job vacancies available for PWDs. The office is also tasked to provide recruitment assistance to employers.
The office is also tasked with providing PWDs access to various livelihood and self-employment programs offered by both government and non-government organizations, as well as to provide skills training.
The PWDEFO is expected to organize job fairs and career counseling for PWDs.
The Department of Health, in coordination with the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), and the National Council on the Welfare of Disabled Persons will also be required to conduct an annual Nationwide Disability Prevalence Survey.
The survey will determine the prevalence of disability in the Philippines, the distribution of disabilities, and report on the status of rehabilitation and rehabilitation needs of PWDs.
DoLE will be primarily responsible for the administration of PWDEFO. Meanwhile, the amount needed for the management of the office will be charged to the appropriations of DoLE. — Vince Angelo C. Ferreras
