CLARK FREEPORT – Commissioner Grace Padaca said the number of voters in the 2016 elections is expected to reach 56 million, and at least 10 percent of them are persons with disability (PWDs).
In an interview during a jobs fair and voters’ registration for PWDs and Aetas held here recently by the Clark Development Corp. (CDC), Padaca cited estimates that PWDs comprise from 10 to 15 percent of the country’s voting population or at least 5.6 million.
That’s a big number,” Padaca said, recognizing their potential as a political force that could support candidates espousing PWD causes. Figures from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) indicated that last year, a total of 52,014,648 registered as voters for the May elections. Of these voters, about 12 million were aged from 18 to 25.
“Even at the barangay elections, the participation of a united PWDs could be significant if only they are encouraged and assisted in going to precincts to vote, since ties at this level are even at times resolved by tossing coins,” Padaca added.
But Padaca lamented the lack of unity among PWDs. “We are not short of formal groups that supposedly represent the interests of PWDs, but they themselves can’t get together. There are some who reason that the needs of the blind are different from the needs of those impaired in mobility, and this somehow fragments them,” she noted.
Pacada urged various sectors supporting PWDs to join efforts to “educate” PWDs and unite them. “Some PWDs are beholden to party list groups which provide them transportation to their precincts on election day, regardless of whether the party list supports their welfare,” she added.
She also noted that most PWDs in the Philippines are mobility-impaired, noting that they include not only those who were born with impairment, but also victims of accidents. Padaca also bared a new Comelec policy to be adopted in the 2016 polls, entitling PWDs to vote in a special precinct for them on the first floor of the voting building.
“They will be asked whether they prefer this, but we will respect their decision to climb to their actual precincts on higher floors because there are families who want to vote together,” she added.
She also said that in the current biometric registration of voters, “PWDs are required to state their specific impairment and other personal data that would provide the Comelec some data to help us adjust to their needs.”
“In the 2013 elections, only about 69,000 indicated they were disabled because there was no requirement by the Comelec for them to declare their disability,” she said.
