PWDs, farmers list concerns

DSWD Secretary Judy M. Taguiwalo —INQUIRER PHOTO

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) led a summit of persons with disabilities (PWD) in Quezon City to get their inputs for the administration’s national development plan until 2022.

The inputs and results of the summit will be collected and submitted to the President as part of the DSWD’s body of recommendations for the Philippine Development Plan from 2018 to 2022.

“It is important that we identify the gaps in the provision of social protection services from the perspective of the PWDs themselves. As part of our genuine ‘malasakit at tunay na serbisyo (compassion and genuine public service),’ we, in government, must come up with a comprehensive program which will answer the overall need in development of this vulnerable sector,” DSWD Secretary Judy M. Taguiwalo said in a statement on Sunday.

The summit, attended by more than 350 PWDs, included the National Anti-Poverty Commission, the National Council for Disability Affairs, and various PWD groups and advocates nationwide.

The PWD summit comes close on the heels of a similar summit in Davao City of agencies involved in the rural development sector.

The Davao conference tackled issues of food security, land tenure improvement and environmental protection.

“Our farmers want security of tenure in their lands. They also want their welfare and rights protected… Another major issue raised [in the workshops] was self-sufficiency in food production and illegal mining. We in the rural sector fully agree with our stakeholders that our country should not depend on importation of agriproducts like rice. We should be self-sufficient to ensure food security in the country. We are also one with them in enforcing responsible mining for the protection of our environment,” DAR Sec. Rafael Mariano said in a statement.