Mabalacat Association of Persons with Disability

A blind masseur from Bohol who was able to rise from poverty and help other disabled people become productive citizens received the 2005 Disabled Filipino of the Year Award yesterday.

Timoteo Quilas, founder of the Bohol Federation of Disabled Persons, led other recipients of the Apolinario Mabini Awards at Malacañang.

Quilas trained as a masseur after he lost his vision when he was a junior college student and already married. His practice flourished and he managed to send his three children to school. His wife, who had left him when he became blind, returned to him.

Carmen Salazar, a long-time teacher for the deaf and creator of the most number of instructional materials for them, received the Mabini Presidential Award.

Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca, a polio victim, received a special award because she did not let her condition stop her from becoming an outstanding student and a fearless media practitioner and public official, fighting anomalies and corruption in her province.

Other recipients include the Rondalla on Wheels, which was recognized as the Disabled Group of the Year; Ma. Corazon Tensuan, Rehabilitation Volunteer Worker of the Year; Philippine Postal Corp. (PPC), Employer of the Year; the cities of Bacolod, Candon (Ilocos Sur), Cuenca (Batangas), Laoag, Pasay and the Bulacan provincial government, local government units or LGUs of the Year.

Glorietta 4, Greenbelt 3, Market! Market!, Podium and SM City Dasmariñas earned the Disabled-Friendly Establishment award.

President Arroyo led the awarding ceremony, together with representatives from the Philippine Foundation for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled Inc. (PFRD).

Quilas’ group managed numbers of people with disabilities and secured an annual aid of P60,000 from the provincial government to provide them with skills training in preparation for launching livelihood projects.

With chapters organized in 36 towns, those who completed skills training established their own cosmetology, dressmaking and electronic repair shops.

In 2002, Quilas’ group was judged the Best People’s Organization in their region. It also received the Gawad Geny Lopez National Award as Bayaning Pilipino in 2004 and a P500,000 cash prize.

Salazar, meanwhile, taught hearing-impaired children for 20 years and was promoted to the post of school principal after being awarded the 2002 Civil Service Award — the highest presidential award given to government employees.

She authored a book with sign language illustrations to make reading easier and involved her students in school community programs.

Salazar received many other awards and most of her pupils became teachers, teacher aides, computer encoders and bookkeepers, among other vocations.

Tensuan, for her part, helped raise funds for the Sunshine Home for the Blind that served as a dormitory for visually-impaired students without permanent residence in Manila.

She was active in efforts to establish links with government agencies and bring about solutions to basic problems faced by disabled persons. She also co-founded the Handog Lingap sa Maykapansanan Foundation, which oversees projects and services for disabled persons.

The Rondalla on Wheels (ROW) is a special feature of the Bahay Mapagmahal, a dormitory that houses handicapped children with no place to go. The children composing the group come from depressed areas all over the country and enjoy free education from elementary to high school at an educational institution for crippled children.

ROW harnesses the music potential of children as well as youths with disabilities and stages concerts in different parts of the country.

The PPC was cited for employing 27 deaf persons and even awarded a deaf employee, Romarico Mateo, as one of its outstanding workers. It also conducts training programs to improve their skills.

The LGUs were honored for the various programs they implemented for disabled persons while malls were awarded for their accessibility to those with physical disability.

The PFRD launched the Apolinario Mabini Awards in 1974 to give recognition to individuals with disabilities, professionals and various groups that distinguished themselves in their chosen fields of endeavor or have rendered outstanding services to people with disabilities.

The awards were named after one of the country’s foremost heroes, Apolinario Mabini, known as the “Sublime Paralytic,” whose disability was not a hindrance to his participation in the 1898 Philippine revolution.

As Goodwill Ambassador of our Department of Tourism at the 30th Congress of the International Theatre Institute in Tampico, Mexico, Cecille Guidote Alvarez’ Earthsavers Dreams Ensemble got such prolonged standing ovations that the ITI concluded its conference with a decision to make the Philippines the site of its next Congress in 2006. This is not the first international recognition that the Earthsavers Dreams Ensemble has received. The UNESCO General Conference awarded them with UNESCO’s Artist for Peace Award and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was privileged to have witnessed both the performance and the awarding ceremony. It is very uplifting to read that some private individuals and groups are being hailed for their outstanding achievement abroad.

The Dreams Ensemble is composed of very able disabled young singers and dancers. The performing group is composed of blind, deaf, speech-impaired, armless and crippled young performers. But they all perform like professional artists. In short, they are very able disabled individuals.

It was then Senator Heherson Alvarez who founded the Dreams Ensemble as the cultural arm of the Earthsavers Movement after returning from the United States where he was exiled during the Marcos regime. His wife, Cecille Guidote Alvarez, the first Filipina to be elected to the UNESCO International Theatre Institute Executive Council and Co-President of its Cultural Identity and Development Committee, is the person who turned Heherson Alvarez’ vision into her personal mission. Jennifer Walpole of the III Secretariat in Paris said that Earthsavers is a troupe that should be seen by the whole world. We are not exaggerating when we say it is only in the Philippines where such a performing group exists and it is thanks to the vision and mission of Heherson and Cecille Alvarez. Incidentally, the performers are children who have been gathered from such organizations like the Kalahi Urban Poor Community and Smokey Mountain.

By pure coincidence, the Earthsavers Dream Ensemble was in Mexico during Philippine Independence Day. And so led by Ambassador Marciano Paynor, it became part of this year’s Independence Day celebration in Mexico. It was only after the opening of the Suez Canal that we had direct contact with Spain. Prior to that, it was through Mexico and our main contact was the galleon trade. We hope that the Earthsavers Dreams Ensemble will also mark the start of more cultural interchanges with Mexico. If Spain is our Mother Country, Mexico is our older brother.