been a good start in promoting the inclusion of persons with disabilities into
society. However, there has been no follow-through with the project, nor
the NCDA or other government agencies have replicated it or launched a
similar initiative since the project’s conclusion in 2012. Moreover, RA No.
10524 supposedly protects and promotes equal opportunity for
employment of persons with disabilities through the implementation of the
one percent (1%) provision of reserved positions for them in all government
agencies, offices, or corporal positions and private corporations with more
than 100 employees.197 However, compliance with such provision does not
necessarily suggest employing qualified persons with disabilities since
offices and companies usually employ persons with disabilities based on
the severity of their disability and not based on their competencies. Thus,
persons with disabilities who, despite being competent skill-wise, are
deemed unqualified because of the severity of their conditions.
Discrimination
171.
With the online recruitment becoming a trend, job recruitment based on
appearance as evident, for instance, on an employer’s insistence for a
face-to-face interview, can be considered a violation of one’s right to work
and to equal opportunity based on the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Presidential Decree No.
966198), Magna Carta of Disabled Persons (Republic Act No. 7277), or the
Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (Republic Act of 8371), or even the
proposed Anti-Discrimination Act, which specifies among discriminatory
practices, “to include SOGIE, as well as the disclosure of sexual
orientation, in the criteria for hiring, promotion, transfer, designation, work
assignment, reassignment, dismissal of workers, and other human
resource movement and action, performance review and in the
determination of employee compensation, career development
opportunities, training, and other learning and development interventions,
incentives, privileges, benefits or allowances, and other terms and
conditions of employment.”199
Recommendations
The following are the recommendations proposed based on the key findings and
gaps identified in the FGDs conducted with the representatives of the different
sectors.
For the National Government
172.
Encourage more IPs to pursue schooling such as by offering more
scholarship programs for them.
173.
The national government, through CHED, TESDA, DepEd, and state
universities, can form partnerships with industries and human resource
197
198
199
Republic Act No. 10524, at § 1.
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted Dec. 21, 1965.
S.B. No. 689, at § 5.
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