Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo on Tuesday asked a panel in the House of Representatives to invite as resource person the family in Quezon City who allegedly obtained identification cards intended for persons with disabilities allegedly without having submitted proper documents to warrant its application.
During a virtual meeting of the House Special Committee on Persons with Disability, Arroyo made a motion to invite the family in the next committee hearing to guide and enlighten legislators over reports of abuse on the use PWD IDs.
“I believe we can’t have a hearing if we don’t invite them and we can correct the supposed misdemeanors or misdeeds,” Arroyo told the panel headed by Rep. Maria Lourdes Arroyo of Negros Occidental. “I would like to make my manifestation a motion that we invite the family,” he added.
The committee conducted the hearing after Reps. Ronnie Ong of the Ang Probinsyano and Eric Yap of ACT-CIS earlier sought a review of the implementation of Republic Act 10754 or the Act Expanding the Benefits and Privileges of Persons with Disability (PWD) even a photo of allegedly fake PWD IDs issued by the Quezon City government to the family of six recently went viral on social media.
The two legislators also asked earlier the Department of Health, the Department of Interior and Local Government and the National Council on Disability Affairs to initiate a crackdown against the proliferation of PWD impersonators.
Arroyo’s motion was carried by the committee. “I would also like to hear their side, how they got these, if and where they got these, and it’s also good to know that everyone who is accused is proven innocent until declared guilty,” Rep. Maria Lourdes Arroyo said.
Chairwoman Arroyo, in her speech at the opening of the meeting, scored the alleged proliferation of fake PWD IDs, saying that it incurs “tremendous losses in government revenues and subsidies.”
“This highlights a lot of personal and social conscience, education, upbringing and a high sense of entitlement,” she said.
“Add to the fact that there are still many people out there with disabilities who cannot obtain PWD IDs because they live in the outskirts of the cities and municipalities and in dire need of accessibility,” she added.