Ridicule, prejudice haunt special people: There’s no specific law for the mentally challenged

While general laws were enacted to champion their rights, persons with mental disabilities still suffer from discrimination and public ridicule.

In 2010, a teenage boy was reportedly forced to deplane from a Cebu Pacific flight because he was “mentally ill.”

Maritess Alcantara and her son were on a flight to Manila from Hong Kong when an airline crew member requested them to deplane because of a Cebu Pacific rule that no two mentally ill passengers should be on the same flight.

Her son, then 14, has global developmental lag, a condition which delays the development of his mental faculties. Alcantara refused to deplane and felt humiliated for the rude treatment she got from the crew.

They filed a P5-million damage suit against Cebu Pacific. The airline management had apologized for the incident and said it did not, and would not discriminate passengers with special needs.

Jocelyn Caliboso of Mandaue City has her share of sad experiences with neighbors who call his son, who has cerebral palsy, monkey.

“Sus, ambot lang. Makapatay man siguro kog tawo,” said Caliboso, 47. (I could kill someone.)
“Sakit pud baya. Bisan ingon ani lang ni siya, daghan mi nga nagpangga niya,” she added. (It pains us to hear them. Though my son looks like this, we love him very much.)

The youngest of her four children, her son has been in and out of the hospital due to seizures. The doctors told them that he won’t live beyond 10 years old. Now that he’s 9, she keeps praying that he will live longer. She believes God gave her a son with special needs to test her faith.

Lawyer Earl Bonachita, former president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Cebu City chapter, said mentally disabled individuals can bank on at least four laws: Batas Pambasa 344 or An Act Enhancing the Mobility of Disabled Persons; Republic Act 7277 or the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons; Republic Act 9442 or the Law Amending the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons; and R.A. 10070 or the Act Establishing Institutional Mechanism to ensure the implementation of programs for disabled persons in every province, city, and municipality.

The Magna Carta for Disabled Persons states that mentally challenged individuals have the same rights as everyone else.

RA 9442 also entitles persons with disabilities to at least 20 percent discount from all establishments relative to the utilization of all services in hotels and similar lodging establishments; restaurants, theaters, concert halls, and other places of leisure.

They may avail of 20 percent discount for the purchase of medicines in all drugstores, and on medical and dental services. Mentally challenged individuals are also free from criminal liability.

Despite all these, Bonachita noted that the Philippines has yet to enact a particular law that concentrates on the plight of mentally disabled individuals.

“Yes, we have existing laws for PWDs like the blind, the deaf, and the mute. But we do not have specific laws for those with mental inabilities. Whatever we have is still general in application.

There has to be a separate legislation for them,” the lawyer explained.

Bonachita said the World Health Organization has “encouraged every state, government, and country to come up with a mental health legislation policy.”

In 2009, realizing that the country has no sufficient mental health law and funding support, former House Speaker Prospero Nograles and former South Cotabato Rep. Arthur Pingoy Jr. filed House Bill 6679 or the “Mental Health Care Delivery System” and the “Philippine Council for Mental Health.”

House Bill 6679 was aimed at enacting a national mental health policy and to establish a national mental health care delivery system in the Philippines that is effective. Unfortunately, the bill never passed into law.

 

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