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Lack of support for upskilling and training for PWD

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Lack of support for upskilling and training for PWD

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The livelihood of PWDs in Metro Manila and in Rosario, Batangas displayed several differences in terms of the quality of employment from both regions according to Mina (2013). First, PWDs in Metro Manila mostly work as a masseur in massage spas. Farmers, livestock, and poultry raisers are more evident in PWDs living in Batangas. However, PWDs from both regions manage their own business such as a sari-sari store, e-load business, and more. Second, more PWD workers are found in Metro Manila than in Batangas. Third, in terms of employment stability, more PWDs are informally employed which means that most of them are seasonal workers or rely on daily wages. Mina (2013) also found out that being a member of Disabled People's Organization and being at least a high school graduate attributes to becoming employed.

Mina, C. (2013).  Employment of persons with disabilities (PWDs) in the Philippines: The case of Metro Manila and Rosario, Batangas. Discussion Paper Series No. 2013-13

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The problem of PWDs and their limited access to employment and education are being reduced especially at the COVID-19 Pandemic

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The problem of PWDs and their limited access to employment and education are being reduced especially at the COVID-19 Pandemic

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The pandemic has displaced several communities in the country, including PWDs. According to Velasco et al (2021), PWD-related COVID-19 programs are still inefficient in terms of financial aid and social programs. Although these programs were crafted to promote the development and empowerment of PWDs, the Human Rights Practices report stated that laws are not effectively enforced, which remained to be a barrier for PWDs. Given these issues, the challenge begs to question: why are existing COVID-19 pandemic responses to PWDs not enough to support their livelihood?

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Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Santo Tomas, Sampaloc, Manila, Philippines.

² Faculty of Management and Development Studies, University of the Philippines Open University, Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines.

³ London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.

Free PMC article

Free PMC article

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Santo Tomas, Sampaloc, Manila, Philippines.

² Faculty of Management and Development Studies, University of the Philippines Open University, Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines.

³ London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic warrants an immediate response. Persons with disabilities (PWDs) are one of the most vulnerable populations susceptible to marginalization. While there are existing guidelines in the Philippines that aim to assist their basic needs, a call for inclusivity in policymaking for the COVID-19 response is highly advocated. This paper aims to analyze existing policy guidelines concerning the welfare of PWDs in the country based on several policy domains. Methods: Relevant documents were acquired through extensive search of government and nongovernment websites and news agencies. Literature included memorandums, circulars, and news bulletins in the period between January 2020 to May 2021. This study conducted a framework analysis on policies enacted by the Philippine government during the COVID-19 pandemic concerning PWDs. The framework was divided into eight areas: access to (1) information, (2)healthcare, (3) education, and (4) financial support, (5) protection from infection in residential settings, (6) reasonable accommodation, (7) consideration for disabled people facing multiple exclusions, and (8) inclusion to decision-making process. Results: Fifteen PWD related COVID-19 response documents from the Philippines were reviewed and analyzed. Most policies corresponded to themes related to financial support and reasonable accommodations. Most documents were limited to proposals and suggestions with only a few documents including specific details on how the program will be implemented and monitored. Conclusion: The state has proven its cognizance for PWDs; however, implementation and its impact remain to be seen. The government needs to evaluate these efforts to identify gaps and barriers. A comprehensive national database should be implemented to centralize registration of PWDs, and efforts should be made to inform and educate PWDs of their rights and of existing programs. Most importantly, PWDs should be included in the discourse and decision-making process to ensure programs are acceptable and accessible.

Keywords: COVID-19; Disabled persons; Philippines; Policy making.

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national center for biotechnology information

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COVID-19 and persons with disabilities in the Philippines: A policy analysis - PubMed

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Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic warrants an immediate response. Persons with disabilities (PWDs) are one of the most vulnerable populations susceptible to marginalization. While there are existing guidelines in the Philippines that aim to assist their basic needs, ...

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There is an evident stigma around PWDs and the Philippine society has a lack of understanding on the abilities and goals of PWDs.

According to Jaucian (2017), some people in the Philippines view these persons or children with disabilities as a 'disgrace' hence, they are often hidden away from society. As a result, they do not get the proper diagnosis, treatment, support and recognition that they need.

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Breaking the stigma on Filipino children with disabilities

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There are around five million disabled children in the country and the issues that they contend with are far too many — from poverty to lack of access to proper health care services. UNICEF has been developing programs to bring awareness to their plight and address their needs.

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Widespread impact of COVID-19 Pandemic reduced financial support among PWDs

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Widespread impact of COVID-19 Pandemic reduced financial support among PWDs

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This limited PWDs to support themselves in the pandemic given that their chronic illnesses are vulnerable to COVID-19

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Implemented laws that recognize PWDs as valuable members of the society

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Implemented laws that recognize PWDs as valuable members of the society

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Accessibility Law (1982)
Magna Carta for PWDs (1992)
An Act Expanding the Benefits and Privileges of PWDs (2016)

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Copyright © 2009 - 2012 National Council on Disability Affairs · All rights reserved.

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COVID-19 and the rights of persons with disabilities

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COVID-19 and the rights of persons with disabilities

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The UN Human Rights have published a guide to provide protection for PWDs in the time of the pandemic. This includes providing efforts to ensure educational access to PWDs

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DOLE's Tulong Alalay Para Sa Taong May Kapansanan (TULAY)

is a specialized skills training for self-employment of displaced persons with disabilities. It offers employment and livelihood assistance with its objective "to help integrate PWDs into the mainstream society and enable them to fully participate in the social and economic development"

Philippine Business and Disability Network

" platform, for and by businesses, that works towards more inclusive and barrier-free workplaces for Persons with Disability (PWDs). It envisions a Philippines where PWDs can actively participate in, and productively contribute within their communities"

It involves different businesses and organizations that are interested in advocating and engaging with CSOs for disability-inclusive employment.

Virtual Training for Persons with Disabilities to be Digital Freelancers (Virtualahan)

A social enterprise called Virtualahan supports PWDs through a ten-week online training program to help them become digital freelancers.

This provides training for skills such as digital marketing, website development, and administrative support. Upon completion of the training, PWD participants will be paired with a partner organization to be part of the apprenticeship program where they will apply their learnings in the industry.

TESDA's Training for Work Scholarship Program

TESDA, in collaboration with the National Council on Disability Affairs, offers free skill training with PWDs. The skills include technical vocation training so that PWDs can receive a national certificate to be eligible to work in the Philippines and in abroad.

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RA 10524 – An Act Expanding The Positions Reserved For Persons With Disability, Amending For The Purpose Republic Act No. 7277, As Amended, Otherwise Known As The Magna Carta For Persons With Disability

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RA 10524 – An Act Expanding The Positions Reserved For Persons With Disability, Amending For The Purpose Republic Act No. 7277, As Amended, Otherwise Known As The Magna Carta For Persons With Disability

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The republic act stated that in government agencies or offices, at least 1% of their positions should be given to PWDs. In the private sector side, the act encourages firms with over 100 employees to reserve at least 1% of jobs for the PWDs, as well.

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Tax relief programs were implemented in the USA to provide financial aid for PWDs in the pandemic

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Tax relief programs were implemented in the USA to provide financial aid for PWDs in the pandemic

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Tax reliefs provide assistance for people with disabilities to help them cope financially

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PWD Emergency plan were given to people with disabilities in Tunisia

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PWD Emergency plan were given to people with disabilities in Tunisia

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Emergency cash transfers given for people with disabilities especially for low income households

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United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy

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United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy

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Three approaches: Twin-track approach, Intersectionality, and Coordination

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Over one billion people are estimated to experience disability, equivalent to about 15% of the world's population. Between 110 million and 190 million people 15 years and older have significant difficulties in functioning. Furthermore, the rates of disability are increasing in part due to ageing populations and an increase in chronic health conditions.

Disability is extremely diverse. While some health conditions associated with disability result in poor health and extensive health care needs, others do not. However, all people with disabilities have the same general health care needs as everyone else, and therefore need access to mainstream health care services. Article 25 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities reinforces the right of persons with disabilities to attain the highest standard of health care, without discrimination.

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Over one billion people are estimated to experience disability, equivalent to about 15% of the world's population. Between 110 million and 190 million people 15 years and older have significant difficulties in functioning. Furthermore, the rates of disability are increasing in part due to ageing populations and an increase in chronic health conditions.

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* Under RA 11228, PWDs have a free membership in PhilHealth. They do not pay monthly fees when they are employed.

* Due to the RA 10524, it was reported in 2019 that there were around 270 firms who published vacant job positions for PWDs.

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* Wheelchair ramps are not readily available for private establishments and education facilities

* The number of available schools for PWDs are not enough to provide special education nationwide

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The proportion of employed PWDs in the urban area is slightly higher (58.3%) than that in the rural area (41.9%).

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Many who are artistically inclined usually find their livelihood with private enterprises or individuals such as advertising agencies, hobbyists, or if confident enough, be self-employed. People with visual impairment face a different but difficult problem. The choice they usually have is either a massage therapist or musician.

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Will you hire a person with disability (PWD)?

Despite numerous local and international decrees on the acceptance of PWDs in mainstream employment, they still experience various forms of discrimination. Considered as a minority, the treatment they receive results from the attitude employers hold toward them.
Who are PWDs?
The Philippine Magna Carta for Disabled Persons defines disabled persons as "those suffering from restriction or different abilities, as a result of a mental, physical or sensory impairment, to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being."

Many PWDs belong to the poorest sector of the society and their poverty and disability severely limits their entry into formal employment.

According to separate reports released by the Philippine National Statistics Office and the Asian Development Bank in 2005, only about 10 to 30 percent of employable PWDs in the country are engaged in regularly paid work. A sizeable 50 percent work in the informal sector, and the rest are homemakers or are dependent on other family members, government aid, and even begging for economic survival.
The study
A survey was conducted in 2011 among 210 employers from various industries in the three regions in Northern Luzon and Central Luzon. The research sought to find factors influencing employment opportunities for PWDs. Results show that employers' perception of what PWDs can (or cannot) do for the company greatly determines hiring decisions.

The perception of Filipino employers toward PWDs in the workplace can be classified into four categories:

"Negative Stereotype" (low productivity, frequent absenteeism and turnover), "Added Business Value" (image as having positive work ethics, morale booster, company prestige), "Added Cost and Efforts at Management" (additional safety measures, needs closer training and supervision) and

"Social Cost" (negative reactions from customers and co-workers).

Statistical analysis showed that the factor "Added Business Value" proved to be the best predictor for hiring PWDs. The primary and often only consideration of Philippine employers is the positive company image that decisions to hire PWDs will bring to the company.
Organizations that will hire PWDs
Service industries such as hotels, restaurants, spas and salons are most likely to hire PWDs. Small-scale enterprises also showed the most favorable attitude towards employing PWDs. Those with a history of employing PWDs will most likely hire them again; with many of these employers agreeing that PWDs have consistently shown satisfactory work performance in their companies. They also claim to be less worried about the usual cost and management issues associated with hiring PWDs.

It is surprising to note that the education sector, ideally tasked to form the consciousness and attitude of our youth, appeared to be the most apprehensive about the social cost of hiring PWDs. Although schools are expected to be forerunners and advocates of inclusion, there seems to be a need for school owners and leaders to consider exposing its different stakeholders to PWDs. It may help to provide avenues for adequate and appropriate interaction among PWDs and their employees, students, parents and other members of the school community.
Employer preferences
Filipino employers prefer PWDs who are males, are non-college degree holders, have motor disability, and with previous related work experience for "blue-collar" jobs. The work arena for PWDs is largely male-dominated like in mainstream employment, where female PWDs suffer double discrimination because of their gender and because of their handicap. Apparently, businesses in the Philippines also favor PWDs applying for nonprofessional jobs which may explain why employers choose noncollege degree holders over those who have finished higher studies. Moreover, PWDs who have restricted physical movements and prior work experience may find it easier to get jobs in most companies.
What can be done?
The Philippine government guarantees the capacitating and inclusion of PWDs into the mainstream society by stressing the importance of their rehabilitation, self-development and self-reliance as stipulated in the Constitution and the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons.

Some of its noteworthy efforts in improving the employment opportunities of PWDs include the development and implementation of training programs in support or in preparation for employment, the allocation of jobs in many government agencies, and the provision of attractive incentives to private entities who will hire PWDs.

In the light of the survey results, organizations are encouraged to engage in efforts to help strengthen the "labor market value" of PWDs by providing training on technical skills, work ethics and socialization skills as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives; ensure that PWDs will be hired in jobs that are commensurate to their qualifications; increase the work prospects for PWDs regardless of gender; and initiate efforts to help improve the attitudes and behaviors of people in the workplace towards PWDs.
(The author is an HR practitioner and part-time faculty at the Psychology Department of Saint Louis University in Baguio City. She and the following HRDM students of SLU completed this study in 2011: James Peign N. Bulahao, Filam Grace G. Boyayao, Michelle M. Cataina, Janice S. Cumilang, Jovie Ann G. Dulnuan and Patricia Paola V. Salaguban. For comments and queries, contact [email protected] .)

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Filipino employers' attitudes toward persons with disabilities

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Will you hire a person with disability (PWD)? Despite numerous local and international decrees on the acceptance of PWDs in mainstream employment, they still experience various forms of discrimination. Considered as a minority, the treatment they receive results from the attitude employers hold toward them. Who are PWDs?

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PWDs especially with visual impairments have limited opportunities in the workforce. The employment gap for them hinders them to participate in the workforce because of discrimination, lack of accessible workplace, limited accommodations for PWDs, and among others

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COVID-19's disproportionate impact on Filipinos with visual impairments

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From employment, education, and access to healthcare, blind and visually impaired Filipinos grapple with the inequalities heightened by the pandemic

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No solutions addressing income disparity within the PWDs 

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No solutions addressing income disparity within the PWDs 

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Albert et al. (2015) study found that there is an existing income disparity within the PWD community, depending on the educational attainment and gender of the PWD. Overall, it was revealed that male PWDs earn more than female PWDs.

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Tatsufumi Yamagata ,

Corresponding Author

Institute of Developing Economies, JETRO, Chiba, Japan

Corresponding author: Tatsufumi Yamagata, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization, 3-2-2 Wakaba, Mihama-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba 261-8545, Japan. Tel: +81-43-299-9562; Fax: +81-43-299-9728; Email: tatsufumi_yamagata@ide.go.jp Search for more papers by this author

First published:

The authors wish to acknowledge Erniel B. Barrios, Hisaki Kono, Kamal Lamichhane, Akihiko Matsui, Fumiharu Mieno, Yasuyuki Sawada, Go Yano, and two anonymous referees for their insightful comments. The authors also want to express appreciation to Marites Racquel Corpuz, Abner Manlapaz, Lauro Purcil, and Josef Yap for overall consultation on the research, and to Ronina D. Asis, Junalyn T. Bayona, Ma. Blessila G. Datu, Kathrina G. Gonzales, and Christian D. Mina for their tireless assistance. The questionnaires and the data for this study are attached with a discussion paper version of this paper (see Albert et al. 2010).

Abstract

How do persons with disabilities (PWDs) earn a living? This paper presents an investigation of the economic activities of PWDs in the Philippines, where, among developing countries, disability-related legislation is relatively progressive. In 2008, a field survey was conducted in cooperation with Disability People's Organizations using a tailor-made questionnaire in Metro Manila. The explanatory variables of income of PWDs were examined using Mincer regression. The conclusions are as follows. (1) There is remarkable income disparity among PWDs, differing with education and sex. (2) After controlling for PWDs' characteristics, it was found that female PWDs are likely to earn less than male PWDs. Such a significant income gap between men and women among PWDs is remarkable in the Philippines, where gender difference in income is generally small. This finding suggests that female PWDs are doubly disadvantaged in earning income.

I. Introduction

Only recently has "disability" been recognized as a development issue in the international community. In the past, it has been regarded simply as a condition associated with disease and injury. Thus, data on disability have not been widely collected beyond the medical domain. This inactivity is more applicable to developing countries than to developed countries. Recently, the international organizations constituting the "Washington City Group" put forth intensive efforts to determine how disability should be identified, and their research has included the use of questionnaires for population censuses, taking in both developed and developing countries (see Altman 2006, among others). However, they give much attention to the identification of disabilities, and the socioeconomic lives of persons with disabilities (hereinafter, PWDs) have rarely been featured in field surveys on disability. 1

This study focuses on the livelihood of PWDs in the Philippines. In August, 2008, the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE) in Japan and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) conducted a field survey in four Metro Manila cities. Reyes, Tabuga, and Mina ( 2015) covered basic facts that were derived from the data. In this paper, questions related to how PWDs make a living are fully examined using the survey data.

The paper is organized as follows. The next section briefly surveys the existing literature on the livelihood of PWDs in developing countries and summarizes findings derived from the literature. Section III explains the sampling strategy used in the field survey and describes basic educational and income features of the sampled PWDs. Section IV is devoted to the analysis of correlates for income of PWDs. The final section provides concluding remarks.

II. Literature Review

Empirical analyses of the economic lives of PWDs in developing countries are few (Yeo and Moore 2003). There are two types of data that have been used in the analyses. One type of analysis covers whole populations, including both PWDs and non-PWDs. Some national population censuses, Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), 2 and the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys contain questions on disability. The other type of analysis uses disability-focused surveys with tailor-made questionnaires.

There are pros and cons for the two types of data analysis. The whole population survey style allows a comparative analysis between PWDs and non-PWDs. A main disadvantage of whole population surveys is that disability is treated as just one of many topics, so questions focused on disability are limited. In contrast, disability-focused surveys have detailed and deliberate questions on disability-related issues. Questions on instrumental variables may be incorporated as part of a tailor-made questionnaire. The main disadvantages are twofold. First, the sample size of a typical disability-focused survey is smaller than that of a whole population survey. Second, a comparison between PWDs and non-PWDs is difficult because it is not easy to find an appropriate reference group of non-PWDs to be covered in a disability-focused survey.

Filmer ( 2008) is a comprehensive study using whole population surveys. Filmer studied 14 household surveys, such as socioeconomic surveys, conducted by statistical authorities of developing countries (DHS and LSMS, among others), and examined the effects of disability on poverty and education. He used income strata and assets as proxies for poverty and found a positive association between disability and poverty, while educational attainment was negatively correlated with disability. Reverse causality bias from education and poverty to disability was controlled to a certain extent by incorporating a household fixed effect. 3 However, when constructing the data set, poverty was only roughly defined and instruments beyond the household fixed effect were not used.

By contrast, disability-focused surveys provide more detailed information on respondents' disabilities. The most active institution that has conducted this type of surveys is SINTEF, which is a Norwegian research organization. 4 SINTEF has conducted surveys in eight Southern and East African countries, which were published as Eide et al. ( 2011) and Eide and Jele ( 2011), among others. Eide et al. ( 2011) is a summary of studies on PWDs in Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Many of SINTEF's studies collect data on neighborhood households without disabled members (Loeb et al. 2008, p. 314; Eide and Jele 2011, p. 60; Eide et al. 2011, p. 57) and treat them as reference respondents to disabled counterparts. They let local PWDs participate in surveys as enumerators. SINTEF's studies generally found PWDs were likely to suffer from illiteracy, unemployment, and poor access to information and education. A weakness of the SINTEF studies is that they often allowed proxies for PWDs, such as family members of PWDs, to answer instead of PWDs themselves if enumerators encountered difficulties communicating with PWD respondents. This frequently happens with people with hearing impairment if the enumerator cannot use sign language, even if the respondent with hearing impairment can understand sign language. The ratios of interviews to proxies were as high as 40-60% (Eide et al. 2003, p. 59, among others). The reason why the proxy answer rate is quite high seems to be that SINTEF hires only mobility and visually impaired people as enumerators and did not hire those with hearing impairment (Eide and Jele 2011, p. 34).

Besides SINTEF's studies, Lamichhane and Sawada ( 2013) collected data on the livelihood and characteristics of persons with mobility, visual, and hearing impairments in Nepal and analyzed determinants of income. They hired PWD enumerators for the survey. Estimating the Mincer equation, they attained high estimates of the rate of return for education, which were around 20%, even after they used instrumental variables for type of impairment and the time since the inception of the impairment.

In comparison with the abovementioned studies, the present paper presents more detailed implications for gender differences among PWDs by using a dataset originally collected in Metro Manila. A distinct feature of this study compared with SINTEF's studies is that enumerators with hearing impairment were hired to interview persons with hearing impairment instead of their proxies. As a result, this study found a significant and substantial gender difference in earnings.

III. Sampling Method and Basic Educational and Income Characteristics of Sampled PWDs

The Philippines is a country where laws and institutions for PWDs have been better and more comprehensively formulated than in other developing nations. The primary law regarding disability is Republic Act 7277, which is widely referred to as the "Philippine Magna Carta for Disabled Persons." Contrary to its promise, improvements in the livelihood of PWDs, which is a prospective impact of the Magna Carta, have yet to be fully realized. This legal framework is a reason why this paper focuses on the Philippines.

A. Geographical Areas to Study

Metro Manila is the capital of the Philippines, and it consists of 17 cities known as "Local Government Units" (LGUs). Among the 17 LGUs, four-Makati, Pasay, Quezon, and Valenzuela-were selected for the survey (Figure  1). These four cities represent certain features of Metro Manila. Makati contains the richest area in the Philippines; thus, its fiscal affluence is remarkable among the 17 LGUs. PWDs living in ordinary residential districts of Makati benefit from large amounts of revenue. Quezon makes up 20% of Metro Manila in terms of both area and population. It is known as an educational district where several well-known universities are located. Pasay and Valenzuela are as poor as other LGUs of Metro Manila. While Pasay is adjacent to Makati, Valenzuela is considered to be on the periphery of Metro Manila. It is assumed that intensive study of these four cities sheds light on various aspects of the livelihood of PWDs living in Metro Manila.

B. Master Lists of PWDs

There are two master lists of PWDs living in Metro Manila. The most formal is the one derived from the survey for the 2000 Census of Population and Housing (NSO 2004). Provided by the National Statistics Office (NSO) for this survey, this list was used first to determine the numbers of PWDs by LGU and type of disability, as shown in Table  1. Regrettably, this list was unable to be used for the field study because of the inaccuracy of information about PWDs in terms of name, disability, age, gender, and address. 5 The alternative source was the PWD lists maintained by the LGUs. Each LGU keeps and updates its list to identify who should be beneficiaries of disability-related social services offered by the LGU. This list covers the lower socioeconomic segment of PWDs who need social services. The lists maintained by the four LGUs were mainly used in this study. 6

Area (LGU)

Type of Impairment

Mobility

Visual

Hearing

Other

Total

C. Method of the Survey: PWDs Interview PWDs

In this survey, PWD enumerators were hired to interview persons with the same type of disability. This policy was adopted for two reasons. First, PWDs perhaps know best the situation of peers with the same disability. Second, communication is smoother between persons with the same type of disability. 7 This is particularly applicable to persons with hearing impairments. For example, a deaf enumerator can interview in the Filipino sign language when the interviewee knows it as well. Without knowing any sign language, it is not possible to interview persons with hearing impairments who know neither written Filipino nor English. In order to be consistent with this policy, types of disabilities were limited to mobility, visual, and hearing impairments. Persons with other types of disabilities (cognitive, mental, etc.) were interviewed only if they had a mobility, visual, or hearing impairment as well. Some key Disabled People's Organizations (DPOs) introduced candidates for enumerators for mobility, visual, and hearing disabilities, but there were no such DPOs for the remaining types of disability.

Qualified interviewees who were determined to reside at their correct address and who were of working age (15−70 years old) were surveyed. The target sample size was 360 people and consisted of 120 people in each disability category, similarly distributed across LGUs. The distribution of samples is displayed in Table  2. Sample PWDs categorized under "multiple" had at least two of the three types of disability. The sampling method is detailed in Reyes, Tabuga, and Mina ( 2015).

Area (LGU)

Type of Impairment

Mobility

Visual

Hearing

Multiple

Total

Note: Sample PWDs categorized under "multiple" had at least two of the three types of impairment. Figures in parentheses are percentages (%) of the number of respondents with a certain type of impairment.

Source: Yap et al. ( 2009, Table 8).

D. Basic Features of Sample PWDs

Table  3 displays the average years of schooling, separated by disability and sex. Note that average years of schooling is fewer for females irrespective of their disability. Also, persons with mobility impairments go to school longer than those with hearing disabilities.

Type of Impairment

Female

Male

Total

Mobility

8.5

9.3

9.1

Visual

7.6

8.1

7.9

Hearing

7.0

7.8

7.5

Multiple

5.5

8.4

7.1

Total

7.6

8.5

8.1

Source: Yap et al. ( 2009, Table 23i).

The average annual income of PWDs by source and disability is shown in Table  4. The simple average of annual income of sample PWDs is 60,173 pesos; this is roughly equivalent to US$1,200. The average income of persons with visual impairments is 76,270 pesos, which is 1.67-fold the average income of persons with hearing impairments and 1.37-fold the average income of persons with mobility impairments.

Source

Mobility

Visual

Hearing

Multiple

All

Source: Yamagata ( 2015, Table 4.4).

IV. Empirical Analyses of Income

In order to explore how low-income PWDs can escape poverty, it is necessary to know how their income is earned. A celebrated and tractable method to analyze determinants of income is Mincer regression (Mincer 1958). This method is a regression of log of income 8 with years of education and other control variables and it estimates the rate of return on education and the impact of the control variables. 9 All variables used in these estimations are summarized in Table  5. 10

Variables

Obs.

Mean

Std. Dev.

Min.

Max.

Source: Authors' calculation.

A. Mincer Regressions

The Mincer regression was conducted with fundamental explanatory variables such as years of schooling, age, age squared, sex dummy (female = 1), marriage dummy (married = 1), disability dummies, area dummies (the reference city is Makati), and years since onset of mobility/visual/hearing impairments. Since disabilities are not mutually exclusive, the intercept was suppressed. The dependent variable is logged "autonomous income," which is defined as total income minus public and private income transfer. Autonomous income is considered a better indicator than total income of the ability of PWDs to earn income. 11

Table  6 displays estimation results of this regression. Since the dependent variable was left-censored at zero, Tobit regression as well as OLS was applied. The results were qualitatively similar between the OLS and Tobit regressions. The point estimates of rate of return on education were 16.9% with the OLS and 23.5% with the Tobit regression (see columns (1) and (3)). These estimates are high relative to a genuine rate of return on education. 12 For example, the Tobit estimate implies that a one-year increase in education raises income by 23.5%.

Independent Variables

Estimation Methods and Specifications

OLS

Tobit

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Interaction term: Education × Sex dummy

-

0.074 (0.111)

-

0.193 (0.169)

R ²
0.716

0.730

-

-

Note: The dependent variable is log (income minus transfer) unless specified otherwise. Figures in parentheses are robust standard errors. ***p < 0.01; **p < 0.05; *p < 0.10.

Source: Authors' calculation.

Other significant explanatory variables are age, age squared, sex dummy, area dummies for Quezon and Pasay, and years since onset of mobility and visual impairments. Since the point estimates of coefficients on age were positive and those on age squared were negative, the age effect on income is nonlinear. According to the pair of estimates exhibited in column (1) of Table  6, the peak age in terms of income is 44.3 years old.

Another interesting finding is that the coefficient on the sex dummy was significantly negative. The significantly negative coefficient implies that women have significantly lower income than men in the same LGUs with the same years of schooling, age, marital status, type, and timing of onset of disability. Moreover, the fact that the coefficient exceeded unity in absolute value means that the difference in income between a woman and a man with the same conditions is more than double. 13 Thus, female PWDs seem to suffer a double disadvantage, as a PWD and as a woman.

Years since onset of impairments are positively associated with income. The coefficients for visual and mobility impairments are statistically significant at the 5% and 10% levels, respectively, while that for hearing impairment is statistically insignificant. A possible underlying reason is that persons first impaired at a young age may more easily pursue strategies for dealing with the disability by learning communication skills such as Braille and sign language, while those who become impaired later in life are more likely to give up learning them. These communication skills help PWDs attain useful information circulated among persons with the same types of disability.

Finally, an interaction term of years of schooling and sex dummy, which incorporates the difference between women and men in the rate of return on education, was added to the explanatory variables. Columns (2) and (4) of Table  6 show that the interaction terms are insignificant. These results imply that the gender difference lies in the level of income rather than the rate of return on education. 14

B. Gender Difference in Income

It is remarkable that the sex dummy coefficient is significantly negative irrespective of estimation methods and combinations of other control variables. Moreover, as mentioned above, the magnitude of the value is large. The point estimates shown in Table  6 are between −1.323 and −3.516, while the rest are around −1.9. The smallest value (i.e., −1.323) implies that male PWDs' income is 3.75-fold that of female PWDs even after controlling for education, age, marital status, type of disability, residential area, and years since onset of disability. The value of −1.9 is translated into an income gap 6.69 times greater for male PWDs compared with female PWDs under the same condition.

That high estimate of the difference in income between female and male PWDs is remarkable because there are studies on earnings of the general Filipino population, which exhibits no difference by sex or a positive differential but to a lesser extent. First, Lanzona ( 1998) showed that if self-selection for overseas migration is controlled, the wage levels of female workers are as high as that of male workers (see Lanzona 1998, Table  5). Second, Yamauchi and Tiongco ( 2013) reported that there was a significant gender difference in earnings while the order of difference was between 1.10 and 1.35 times. The difference between female and male PWDs found in this paper is far greater than those shown in the two studies on the general population in the Philippines.

This double disadvantage for female PWDs deserves further attention because the Philippines is known as a country where there has been great progress in the empowerment of women in various respects. Hausmann, Tyson, and Zahidi ( 2010) constructed the global gender gap index, which incorporates "economic participation and opportunity," "educational attainment," "health and survival," and "political empowerment," and ranked the Philippines in the index as ninth in the world. UNESCAP ( 2000) showed that female-headed households earn more than male-headed households in the Philippines, based on a household sample survey conducted in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Illo ( 1997) also indicated that the Philippines was impressive in its advancement of women's socioeconomic status, in comparison with neighboring Asian countries. However, female PWDs have not enjoyed the same progress as women overall in the Philippines.

V. Concluding Remarks

PWDs have been long regarded as the recipients of welfare services, not as breadwinners. This study highlighted the earning potential of PWDs in Metro Manila, the Philippines, with quantitative data originally collected through interviewing PWDs directly by PWDs.

Both promises and challenges for PWDs were identified from the data. A promising aspect can be found from the flip side of high income disparity among PWDs. That is, some PWDs are educated and earn a substantial amount at the same time. The estimation results showed that PWDs who have been impaired from a young age are likely to earn more. An interpretation of this observation is that gradual adaptation of PWDs to impairment improves outcomes. People may adjust to impairments and become able to earn a living.

An immense challenge faces female PWDs, as detailed in the previous section. Since the Philippines has made good progress in the empowerment of women in general, now is the time for female PWDs to be offered the same socioeconomic advancement that women in general have received in the country.

Footnotes

1 An exception is a set of field surveys conducted by Washington University in St. Louis and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research in the United States. These are known, respectively, as the "Community Receptivity Project" and "Assistive Technology in the Community Assessment."

2 The DHS Program is mainly funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). So far more than 300 surveys have been conducted in more than 90 developing countries.

3 In other words, siblings without disability were defined as a control group for a PWD.

4 SINTEF is the abbreviated name of "Stiftelsen for Industriell og Teknisk Forskning" in Norwegian, which means "The Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research."

5 See Yap et al. (2009, pp. 26-36) for more information. The inaccuracy is suggested by the extraordinarily small number of persons with hearing impairments in Table 1 as well. The ratio of hearing-impaired people to total population of the selected four LGUs in 2000 was 0.079%, while those of visual, mobility, and other impairments were 2.004%, 0.179%, and 0.159%, respectively.

6 Precisely speaking, 3.0% and 17.6% of samples were drawn from NSO (2004) and other sources. For more details, see Yap et al. (2009, Table 6).

7 See Yeo and Moore (2003, pp. 576-8) about potential problems in the research on "disability and development" without participation of PWDs in the design and implementation of the research.

8 Seventy-four sampled PWDs did not have any monetary income. Since the logarithm is applicable to only positive numbers, 1 peso is assigned to the income of the 74 sample PWDs in place of zero. One peso is as small as zero pesos in terms of annual income in the Philippines. Thus, there was no discernible effect.

9 Contemporary empirical works using Mincer regression are likely to use logged monthly/weekly/daily wage rate as the dependent variable. The annual income in this data set was worked out as 12-fold monthly earnings with some seasonal adjustment. For information, Mincer (1958) applied the equation to annual incomes of workers.

10 A discussion paper version of this paper, Albert et al. (2010), contains attempts to take care of endogeneity between educational attainment and the decision to participate in the labor market.

11 The discussion paper version of this article attempts to analyze determinants of total income (Albert et al. 2010). However, the present article analyzes autonomous income exclusively, because private income transfer seems to be made to offset differences in autonomous income among people with different disabilities, which is shown in Table 4.

12 The 95% confidence interval is (5.5%, 28.3%) with OLS and (5.8%, 41.3%) with Tobit regression. Estimates of rates of return on education as high as 20-40% are not unusual in studies for developing countries in the 1960s and 1970s (Willis 1986, pp. 540-1). However, estimates commonly observed in the world in recent years (Card 1999, pp. 1834-54) as well as those found with data from the Philippines are likely to be closer to 10% (Maluccio 1998; Schady 2003; Yamauchi 2005, p. 965). In a study with data about Nepalese PWDs, Lamichhane and Sawada (2013) reported that their estimates of rate of return on education were around 25% after taking into account the endogeneity of years of education.

13 When the coefficient on the sex dummy is 1, the conditional male to female income ratio is e ¹ (approximately, e ¹ = 2.718).

14 For information, interaction terms between years of schooling and disability dummies turned out to be insignificant when added to the estimations displayed in Table 6.

Abstract

How do persons with disabilities (PWDs) earn a living? This paper presents an investigation of the economic activities of PWDs in the Philippines, where, among developing countries, disability-related legislation is relatively progressive. In 2008, a field survey was conducted in cooperation with Disability People's Organizations using a tailor-made questionnaire in Metro Manila. The explanatory variables of income of PWDs were examined using Mincer regression. The conclusions are as follows. (1) There is remarkable income disparity among PWDs, differing with education and sex. (2) After controlling for PWDs' characteristics, it was found that female PWDs are likely to earn less than male PWDs. Such a significant income gap between men and women among PWDs is remarkable in the Philippines, where gender difference in income is generally small. This finding suggests that female PWDs are doubly disadvantaged in earning income.

I. Introduction

Only recently has "disability" been recognized as a development issue in the international community. In the past, it has been regarded simply as a condition associated with disease and injury. Thus, data on disability have not been widely collected beyond the medical domain. This inactivity is more applicable to developing countries than to developed countries. Recently, the international organizations constituting the "Washington City Group" put forth intensive efforts to determine how disability should be identified, and their research has included the use of questionnaires for population censuses, taking in both developed and developing countries (see Altman 2006, among others). However, they give much attention to the identification of disabilities, and the socioeconomic lives of persons with disabilities (hereinafter, PWDs) have rarely been featured in field surveys on disability. 1

This study focuses on the livelihood of PWDs in the Philippines. In August, 2008, the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE) in Japan and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) conducted a field survey in four Metro Manila cities. Reyes, Tabuga, and Mina ( 2015) covered basic facts that were derived from the data. In this paper, questions related to how PWDs make a living are fully examined using the survey data.

The paper is organized as follows. The next section briefly surveys the existing literature on the livelihood of PWDs in developing countries and summarizes findings derived from the literature. Section III explains the sampling strategy used in the field survey and describes basic educational and income features of the sampled PWDs. Section IV is devoted to the analysis of correlates for income of PWDs. The final section provides concluding remarks.

II. Literature Review

Empirical analyses of the economic lives of PWDs in developing countries are few (Yeo and Moore 2003). There are two types of data that have been used in the analyses. One type of analysis covers whole populations, including both PWDs and non-PWDs. Some national population censuses, Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), 2 and the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys contain questions on disability. The other type of analysis uses disability-focused surveys with tailor-made questionnaires.

There are pros and cons for the two types of data analysis. The whole population survey style allows a comparative analysis between PWDs and non-PWDs. A main disadvantage of whole population surveys is that disability is treated as just one of many topics, so questions focused on disability are limited. In contrast, disability-focused surveys have detailed and deliberate questions on disability-related issues. Questions on instrumental variables may be incorporated as part of a tailor-made questionnaire. The main disadvantages are twofold. First, the sample size of a typical disability-focused survey is smaller than that of a whole population survey. Second, a comparison between PWDs and non-PWDs is difficult because it is not easy to find an appropriate reference group of non-PWDs to be covered in a disability-focused survey.

Filmer ( 2008) is a comprehensive study using whole population surveys. Filmer studied 14 household surveys, such as socioeconomic surveys, conducted by statistical authorities of developing countries (DHS and LSMS, among others), and examined the effects of disability on poverty and education. He used income strata and assets as proxies for poverty and found a positive association between disability and poverty, while educational attainment was negatively correlated with disability. Reverse causality bias from education and poverty to disability was controlled to a certain extent by incorporating a household fixed effect. 3 However, when constructing the data set, poverty was only roughly defined and instruments beyond the household fixed effect were not used.

By contrast, disability-focused surveys provide more detailed information on respondents' disabilities. The most active institution that has conducted this type of surveys is SINTEF, which is a Norwegian research organization. 4 SINTEF has conducted surveys in eight Southern and East African countries, which were published as Eide et al. ( 2011) and Eide and Jele ( 2011), among others. Eide et al. ( 2011) is a summary of studies on PWDs in Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Many of SINTEF's studies collect data on neighborhood households without disabled members (Loeb et al. 2008, p. 314; Eide and Jele 2011, p. 60; Eide et al. 2011, p. 57) and treat them as reference respondents to disabled counterparts. They let local PWDs participate in surveys as enumerators. SINTEF's studies generally found PWDs were likely to suffer from illiteracy, unemployment, and poor access to information and education. A weakness of the SINTEF studies is that they often allowed proxies for PWDs, such as family members of PWDs, to answer instead of PWDs themselves if enumerators encountered difficulties communicating with PWD respondents. This frequently happens with people with hearing impairment if the enumerator cannot use sign language, even if the respondent with hearing impairment can understand sign language. The ratios of interviews to proxies were as high as 40-60% (Eide et al. 2003, p. 59, among others). The reason why the proxy answer rate is quite high seems to be that SINTEF hires only mobility and visually impaired people as enumerators and did not hire those with hearing impairment (Eide and Jele 2011, p. 34).

Besides SINTEF's studies, Lamichhane and Sawada ( 2013) collected data on the livelihood and characteristics of persons with mobility, visual, and hearing impairments in Nepal and analyzed determinants of income. They hired PWD enumerators for the survey. Estimating the Mincer equation, they attained high estimates of the rate of return for education, which were around 20%, even after they used instrumental variables for type of impairment and the time since the inception of the impairment.

In comparison with the abovementioned studies, the present paper presents more detailed implications for gender differences among PWDs by using a dataset originally collected in Metro Manila. A distinct feature of this study compared with SINTEF's studies is that enumerators with hearing impairment were hired to interview persons with hearing impairment instead of their proxies. As a result, this study found a significant and substantial gender difference in earnings.

III. Sampling Method and Basic Educational and Income Characteristics of Sampled PWDs

The Philippines is a country where laws and institutions for PWDs have been better and more comprehensively formulated than in other developing nations. The primary law regarding disability is Republic Act 7277, which is widely referred to as the "Philippine Magna Carta for Disabled Persons." Contrary to its promise, improvements in the livelihood of PWDs, which is a prospective impact of the Magna Carta, have yet to be fully realized. This legal framework is a reason why this paper focuses on the Philippines.

A. Geographical Areas to Study

Metro Manila is the capital of the Philippines, and it consists of 17 cities known as "Local Government Units" (LGUs). Among the 17 LGUs, four-Makati, Pasay, Quezon, and Valenzuela-were selected for the survey (Figure  1). These four cities represent certain features of Metro Manila. Makati contains the richest area in the Philippines; thus, its fiscal affluence is remarkable among the 17 LGUs. PWDs living in ordinary residential districts of Makati benefit from large amounts of revenue. Quezon makes up 20% of Metro Manila in terms of both area and population. It is known as an educational district where several well-known universities are located. Pasay and Valenzuela are as poor as other LGUs of Metro Manila. While Pasay is adjacent to Makati, Valenzuela is considered to be on the periphery of Metro Manila. It is assumed that intensive study of these four cities sheds light on various aspects of the livelihood of PWDs living in Metro Manila.

B. Master Lists of PWDs

There are two master lists of PWDs living in Metro Manila. The most formal is the one derived from the survey for the 2000 Census of Population and Housing (NSO 2004). Provided by the National Statistics Office (NSO) for this survey, this list was used first to determine the numbers of PWDs by LGU and type of disability, as shown in Table  1. Regrettably, this list was unable to be used for the field study because of the inaccuracy of information about PWDs in terms of name, disability, age, gender, and address. 5 The alternative source was the PWD lists maintained by the LGUs. Each LGU keeps and updates its list to identify who should be beneficiaries of disability-related social services offered by the LGU. This list covers the lower socioeconomic segment of PWDs who need social services. The lists maintained by the four LGUs were mainly used in this study. 6

Area (LGU)

Type of Impairment

Mobility

Visual

Hearing

Other

Total

C. Method of the Survey: PWDs Interview PWDs

In this survey, PWD enumerators were hired to interview persons with the same type of disability. This policy was adopted for two reasons. First, PWDs perhaps know best the situation of peers with the same disability. Second, communication is smoother between persons with the same type of disability. 7 This is particularly applicable to persons with hearing impairments. For example, a deaf enumerator can interview in the Filipino sign language when the interviewee knows it as well. Without knowing any sign language, it is not possible to interview persons with hearing impairments who know neither written Filipino nor English. In order to be consistent with this policy, types of disabilities were limited to mobility, visual, and hearing impairments. Persons with other types of disabilities (cognitive, mental, etc.) were interviewed only if they had a mobility, visual, or hearing impairment as well. Some key Disabled People's Organizations (DPOs) introduced candidates for enumerators for mobility, visual, and hearing disabilities, but there were no such DPOs for the remaining types of disability.

Qualified interviewees who were determined to reside at their correct address and who were of working age (15−70 years old) were surveyed. The target sample size was 360 people and consisted of 120 people in each disability category, similarly distributed across LGUs. The distribution of samples is displayed in Table  2. Sample PWDs categorized under "multiple" had at least two of the three types of disability. The sampling method is detailed in Reyes, Tabuga, and Mina ( 2015).

Area (LGU)

Type of Impairment

Mobility

Visual

Hearing

Multiple

Total

Note: Sample PWDs categorized under "multiple" had at least two of the three types of impairment. Figures in parentheses are percentages (%) of the number of respondents with a certain type of impairment.

Source: Yap et al. ( 2009, Table 8).

D. Basic Features of Sample PWDs

Table  3 displays the average years of schooling, separated by disability and sex. Note that average years of schooling is fewer for females irrespective of their disability. Also, persons with mobility impairments go to school longer than those with hearing disabilities.

Type of Impairment

Female

Male

Total

Mobility

8.5

9.3

9.1

Visual

7.6

8.1

7.9

Hearing

7.0

7.8

7.5

Multiple

5.5

8.4

7.1

Total

7.6

8.5

8.1

Source: Yap et al. ( 2009, Table 23i).

The average annual income of PWDs by source and disability is shown in Table  4. The simple average of annual income of sample PWDs is 60,173 pesos; this is roughly equivalent to US$1,200. The average income of persons with visual impairments is 76,270 pesos, which is 1.67-fold the average income of persons with hearing impairments and 1.37-fold the average income of persons with mobility impairments.

Source

Mobility

Visual

Hearing

Multiple

All

Source: Yamagata ( 2015, Table 4.4).

IV. Empirical Analyses of Income

In order to explore how low-income PWDs can escape poverty, it is necessary to know how their income is earned. A celebrated and tractable method to analyze determinants of income is Mincer regression (Mincer 1958). This method is a regression of log of income 8 with years of education and other control variables and it estimates the rate of return on education and the impact of the control variables. 9 All variables used in these estimations are summarized in Table  5. 10

Variables

Obs.

Mean

Std. Dev.

Min.

Max.

Source: Authors' calculation.

A. Mincer Regressions

The Mincer regression was conducted with fundamental explanatory variables such as years of schooling, age, age squared, sex dummy (female = 1), marriage dummy (married = 1), disability dummies, area dummies (the reference city is Makati), and years since onset of mobility/visual/hearing impairments. Since disabilities are not mutually exclusive, the intercept was suppressed. The dependent variable is logged "autonomous income," which is defined as total income minus public and private income transfer. Autonomous income is considered a better indicator than total income of the ability of PWDs to earn income. 11

Table  6 displays estimation results of this regression. Since the dependent variable was left-censored at zero, Tobit regression as well as OLS was applied. The results were qualitatively similar between the OLS and Tobit regressions. The point estimates of rate of return on education were 16.9% with the OLS and 23.5% with the Tobit regression (see columns (1) and (3)). These estimates are high relative to a genuine rate of return on education. 12 For example, the Tobit estimate implies that a one-year increase in education raises income by 23.5%.

Independent Variables

Estimation Methods and Specifications

OLS

Tobit

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Interaction term: Education × Sex dummy

-

0.074 (0.111)

-

0.193 (0.169)

R ²
0.716

0.730

-

-

Note: The dependent variable is log (income minus transfer) unless specified otherwise. Figures in parentheses are robust standard errors. ***p < 0.01; **p < 0.05; *p < 0.10.

Source: Authors' calculation.

Other significant explanatory variables are age, age squared, sex dummy, area dummies for Quezon and Pasay, and years since onset of mobility and visual impairments. Since the point estimates of coefficients on age were positive and those on age squared were negative, the age effect on income is nonlinear. According to the pair of estimates exhibited in column (1) of Table  6, the peak age in terms of income is 44.3 years old.

Another interesting finding is that the coefficient on the sex dummy was significantly negative. The significantly negative coefficient implies that women have significantly lower income than men in the same LGUs with the same years of schooling, age, marital status, type, and timing of onset of disability. Moreover, the fact that the coefficient exceeded unity in absolute value means that the difference in income between a woman and a man with the same conditions is more than double. 13 Thus, female PWDs seem to suffer a double disadvantage, as a PWD and as a woman.

Years since onset of impairments are positively associated with income. The coefficients for visual and mobility impairments are statistically significant at the 5% and 10% levels, respectively, while that for hearing impairment is statistically insignificant. A possible underlying reason is that persons first impaired at a young age may more easily pursue strategies for dealing with the disability by learning communication skills such as Braille and sign language, while those who become impaired later in life are more likely to give up learning them. These communication skills help PWDs attain useful information circulated among persons with the same types of disability.

Finally, an interaction term of years of schooling and sex dummy, which incorporates the difference between women and men in the rate of return on education, was added to the explanatory variables. Columns (2) and (4) of Table  6 show that the interaction terms are insignificant. These results imply that the gender difference lies in the level of income rather than the rate of return on education. 14

B. Gender Difference in Income

It is remarkable that the sex dummy coefficient is significantly negative irrespective of estimation methods and combinations of other control variables. Moreover, as mentioned above, the magnitude of the value is large. The point estimates shown in Table  6 are between −1.323 and −3.516, while the rest are around −1.9. The smallest value (i.e., −1.323) implies that male PWDs' income is 3.75-fold that of female PWDs even after controlling for education, age, marital status, type of disability, residential area, and years since onset of disability. The value of −1.9 is translated into an income gap 6.69 times greater for male PWDs compared with female PWDs under the same condition.

That high estimate of the difference in income between female and male PWDs is remarkable because there are studies on earnings of the general Filipino population, which exhibits no difference by sex or a positive differential but to a lesser extent. First, Lanzona ( 1998) showed that if self-selection for overseas migration is controlled, the wage levels of female workers are as high as that of male workers (see Lanzona 1998, Table  5). Second, Yamauchi and Tiongco ( 2013) reported that there was a significant gender difference in earnings while the order of difference was between 1.10 and 1.35 times. The difference between female and male PWDs found in this paper is far greater than those shown in the two studies on the general population in the Philippines.

This double disadvantage for female PWDs deserves further attention because the Philippines is known as a country where there has been great progress in the empowerment of women in various respects. Hausmann, Tyson, and Zahidi ( 2010) constructed the global gender gap index, which incorporates "economic participation and opportunity," "educational attainment," "health and survival," and "political empowerment," and ranked the Philippines in the index as ninth in the world. UNESCAP ( 2000) showed that female-headed households earn more than male-headed households in the Philippines, based on a household sample survey conducted in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Illo ( 1997) also indicated that the Philippines was impressive in its advancement of women's socioeconomic status, in comparison with neighboring Asian countries. However, female PWDs have not enjoyed the same progress as women overall in the Philippines.

V. Concluding Remarks

PWDs have been long regarded as the recipients of welfare services, not as breadwinners. This study highlighted the earning potential of PWDs in Metro Manila, the Philippines, with quantitative data originally collected through interviewing PWDs directly by PWDs.

Both promises and challenges for PWDs were identified from the data. A promising aspect can be found from the flip side of high income disparity among PWDs. That is, some PWDs are educated and earn a substantial amount at the same time. The estimation results showed that PWDs who have been impaired from a young age are likely to earn more. An interpretation of this observation is that gradual adaptation of PWDs to impairment improves outcomes. People may adjust to impairments and become able to earn a living.

An immense challenge faces female PWDs, as detailed in the previous section. Since the Philippines has made good progress in the empowerment of women in general, now is the time for female PWDs to be offered the same socioeconomic advancement that women in general have received in the country.

Footnotes

1 An exception is a set of field surveys conducted by Washington University in St. Louis and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research in the United States. These are known, respectively, as the "Community Receptivity Project" and "Assistive Technology in the Community Assessment."

2 The DHS Program is mainly funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). So far more than 300 surveys have been conducted in more than 90 developing countries.

3 In other words, siblings without disability were defined as a control group for a PWD.

4 SINTEF is the abbreviated name of "Stiftelsen for Industriell og Teknisk Forskning" in Norwegian, which means "The Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research."

5 See Yap et al. (2009, pp. 26-36) for more information. The inaccuracy is suggested by the extraordinarily small number of persons with hearing impairments in Table 1 as well. The ratio of hearing-impaired people to total population of the selected four LGUs in 2000 was 0.079%, while those of visual, mobility, and other impairments were 2.004%, 0.179%, and 0.159%, respectively.

6 Precisely speaking, 3.0% and 17.6% of samples were drawn from NSO (2004) and other sources. For more details, see Yap et al. (2009, Table 6).

7 See Yeo and Moore (2003, pp. 576-8) about potential problems in the research on "disability and development" without participation of PWDs in the design and implementation of the research.

8 Seventy-four sampled PWDs did not have any monetary income. Since the logarithm is applicable to only positive numbers, 1 peso is assigned to the income of the 74 sample PWDs in place of zero. One peso is as small as zero pesos in terms of annual income in the Philippines. Thus, there was no discernible effect.

9 Contemporary empirical works using Mincer regression are likely to use logged monthly/weekly/daily wage rate as the dependent variable. The annual income in this data set was worked out as 12-fold monthly earnings with some seasonal adjustment. For information, Mincer (1958) applied the equation to annual incomes of workers.

10 A discussion paper version of this paper, Albert et al. (2010), contains attempts to take care of endogeneity between educational attainment and the decision to participate in the labor market.

11 The discussion paper version of this article attempts to analyze determinants of total income (Albert et al. 2010). However, the present article analyzes autonomous income exclusively, because private income transfer seems to be made to offset differences in autonomous income among people with different disabilities, which is shown in Table 4.

12 The 95% confidence interval is (5.5%, 28.3%) with OLS and (5.8%, 41.3%) with Tobit regression. Estimates of rates of return on education as high as 20-40% are not unusual in studies for developing countries in the 1960s and 1970s (Willis 1986, pp. 540-1). However, estimates commonly observed in the world in recent years (Card 1999, pp. 1834-54) as well as those found with data from the Philippines are likely to be closer to 10% (Maluccio 1998; Schady 2003; Yamauchi 2005, p. 965). In a study with data about Nepalese PWDs, Lamichhane and Sawada (2013) reported that their estimates of rate of return on education were around 25% after taking into account the endogeneity of years of education.

13 When the coefficient on the sex dummy is 1, the conditional male to female income ratio is e ¹ (approximately, e ¹ = 2.718).

14 For information, interaction terms between years of schooling and disability dummies turned out to be insignificant when added to the estimations displayed in Table 6.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Income Disparity among Persons with Disabilities, Assessed by Education and Sex: Accentuated Gender Difference Found in Metro Manila, the Philippines

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tatsufumi Yamagata , Corresponding Author Institute of Developing Economies, JETRO, Chiba, Japan Corresponding author: Tatsufumi Yamagata, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization, 3-2-2 Wakaba, Mihama-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba 261-8545, Japan. Tel: +81-43-299-9562; Fax: +81-43-299-9728; Email: tatsufumi_yamagata@ide.go.jp Search for more papers by this author First published: The authors wish to acknowledge Erniel B.

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Solutions do not address accessibility issues and lack of facilities for PWDs

# data[].attributes.subject
Solutions do not address accessibility issues and lack of facilities for PWDs

# data[].attributes.body
Rotas and Cahapay (2021) mentioned that although there are existing policies that help PWDs, they are not enough. The authors mentioned that there are remains to be only few facilities that are meant to care for persons with special needs in the Philippines. Additionally, these facilities are also faced with issues of accessibility.

# data[].attributes.headline
Mental Health of PWDs amidst the pandemic

# data[].attributes.subject
Mental Health of PWDs amidst the pandemic

# data[].attributes.body
Rotas and Cahapay (2021) have mentioned that the current pandemic may have potentially harmed the marginalized communities in terms of their mental health.

# data[].attributes.headline
We need to level up our social support for PWDs

# data[].attributes.subject
We need to level up our social support for PWDs

# data[].attributes.body
PWDs have been disadvantaged from multi-sectoral problems and accessibility of support. We need to take action to alleviate the efforts of improving their livelihood, which has been far reached for them because of the limited opportunities available.

# data[].attributes.body
Zernice Mae Cruz

Cromwell Taduran (CSB)

Director Emer Rojas (NCDA)

Abner Manlapaz (PWD Rights Activist)

Lolita Gelle (Foundation for These-Abled Persons)

# data[].attributes.headline
Questions to ask to organizations and point persons

# data[].attributes.subject
Questions to ask to organizations and point persons

# data[].attributes.body
1. What main issue/s is your organization trying to address with regards to Persons with disabilities (PWDs)?

2. What activities, programs or projects does your organization implement that helps the PWDs?

3. How do you receive funding for your activities, programs, or projects?

4. How do you gather participants or raise awareness of your activities, programs, and projects?

5. Is there a specific community or location that your organization is currently helping?

6. Do you know of any other locations or communities that are in need of help with their PWDs?

7. In your own personal opinion, what challenges are PWDs facing in terms of employment and education?

8. With regards to policies targeted towards helping the PWDs, do you know of any policies abroad that you think the Philippines should incorporate?

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Have an open mind

PWDs have limited opportunities to become educated or join the workforce. But they are humans too and they deserve the right to be treated fairly and be free from discrimination. They also have capabilities too that can contribute well in different fields. Thus, we should not disregard their physical disabilities.

Contact more point persons that may hopefully reply to our inquiries

Make more connections to organizations concerned

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Globally, there are more than 650 million people who are living with a disability. Notably, these PWDs are considered to be the world's largest group of disadvantaged minority.

Statistics from the UN show that out of the world's poorest communities, 20% of them are PWD. Meanwhile, out of the children with disabilities, 98% of them do not go to school or receive any form of education. On the other hand for adults with disabilities, only 3% of them are literate.

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Combating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities

Over 650 million people around the world live with disabilities. In every region of the world, in every country, persons with disabilities often live on the margins of society, deprived of some of life's fundamental experiences. They have little hope of going to school, getting a job, having their own home, creating a family and raising their children, socializing or voting. Persons with disabilities make up the world's largest and most disadvantaged minority. The numbers, according to the UN handbook " From Exclusion to Equality: Realizing the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ", are damning: 20% of the world's poorest people are with disabilities, 98% of children with disabilities in developing countries do not attend school, around a third of the world's street children live with disabilities, and the literacy rate for adults with disabilities is as low as 3%, and 1% for women with disabilities in some countries.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is the International Community's response to the long history of discrimination, exclusion and dehumanization of persons with disabilities. A record number of countries have signed the Convention and its Protocol, both of which were adopted on 13 December 2006 and entered into force in May 2008.
Activities of the UN human rights office

Raises awareness, understanding and recognition of disability as a human rights issue.

Encourages States and regional integration organizations to become party and implement the Convention.

Supports the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as the independent body mandated to monitor the implementation of the Convention.

Encourages and supports the human rights system in its entirety to mainstream the rights of persons with disabilities in its work, in line with the Convention.

Promotes the coordinated action of the United Nations mechanisms in support of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Through its Disability Unit, furthers the struggle against such discrimination by building national capacity through advisory services, conducting research and analysis, servicing intergovernmental and expert mechanisms. It also engages with the wider community to forge partnerships, raise awareness and mobilize support for anti-discrimination measures such as legislation, policies and programmes.

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OHCHR | Combating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities

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Over 650 million people around the world live with disabilities. In every region of the world, in every country, persons with disabilities often live on the margins of society, deprived of some of life's fundamental experiences. They have little hope of going to school, getting a job, having their own home, creating a family and raising their children, socializing or voting.

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According to the report entitled “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2018",  persons with disabilities (PWD) in the Philippines “continued to face discrimination” in 2018 as a policy crafted to help them “was not effectively enforced.”

Majority of public infrastructure remains inaccessible to PWD. It is also mentioned that many schools had architectural barriers which negatively affects the attendance of PWD students.

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1. Cromwell Taduran (CSB)
- In order for PWDs to have more opportunities for employment, they need to have skills training to be exposed to the industry.
- However, finding jobs for PWDs is harder especially in the pandemic given that they are vulnerable to the exposure of COVID-19. A safer option for them is a job with a work-from-home setup.
- Advocacies can be implemented to raise awareness and sensitivity for PWDs

2. Zernice Mae Cruz
- PWDs are being retrenched by the companies because of discrimination.
- There needs to be better communication between companies and PWDs to address issues.

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According to Cromwell Taduran (CSB), work-from-home or remote jobs are best suited for PWDs, especially for those who have physical disabilities. However, current solutions still do not address this. PWDs still have to physically go to offices and workplaces to apply for jobs which can be of an inconvenience for them.

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PWDs are not the priority of the government during the pandemic

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PWDs are not the priority of the government during the pandemic

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According to Cecilia (2021), the Deaf community were the last to know about the pandemic. This is primarily because the government did not include any captions or sign language interpreters in their announcements or news on the protocols and measures. Apart from that, there were also reports that the PWDs were not qualified for the government's stimulus package or 'ayuda'.

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The 1987 Philippine Constitution recognizes the need to support vulnerable sectors of society, including persons with disabilities (PWDs). Article XIII, Section 13 provides that "the State shall establish a special agency for disabled persons for their rehabilitation, self-development, self-reliance and their integration into the mainstream of society." In 1992, the Philippine Congress passed Republic Act 7277 or the "Magna Carta for Persons with Disability." In 2008, the Philippines signed the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. These acts enjoin the Philippines to uphold the rights of persons with disabilities.
Filipino PWDs
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that in any given population in the world, the disability incidence is roughly between 12 and 15 percent. A low estimate of PWDs in the Philippines would be around 13 million Filipinos, based on current population and the WHO estimate. In a 2010 survey, 6.77 percent of Filipino households have PWDs.

Under Philippine laws, PWDs are "persons who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others." Identification Cards (IDs) shall be issued to any PWD with psychosocial, chronic illness, learning, mental, visual, orthopedic, speech and hearing conditions. Included in these categories are "persons suffering from disabling diseases resulting to the person's limitations to do day-to-day activities as normally as possible, such as but not limited to those undergoing dialysis, heart disorders, severe cancer cases, and such other similar cases resulting to temporary or permanent disability."

Disability is one of the prevailing social issues affecting the Philippines today. The State aims to ensure the equality and rights of disabled persons through the passage of enabling laws and policies, and the creation of government agencies to help improve the wellbeing of PWDs. The National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA) is the government body that focuses on the issues, concerns, and activities related to PWDs. Its priority is to "track the enforcement of laws to ensure protection of PWDs' political and civil rights." It also observes the annual International Day of Persons with Disabilities held on December 3 in the Philippines, to advocate the rights of Filipino PWDs.

There are eight nongovernment organizations (NGOs) recognized by the NCDA that "cater to Filipino PWDs." Local government units also keep track of local NGOs and maintain a PWD Affairs Office under the Office of the Mayor to facilitate support for the needs of PWD constituents.

Under RA 10754, PWDs shall be entitled to "20% discount and Value Added Tax (VAT) exemption on the purchase of certain goods and services, educational assistance, GSIS, SSS and Pag-IBIG benefits, special discounts in Special Programs, and Express Lanes."
Not enough care
The Asia Foundation (TAF), in partnership with the Australian Embassy of the Philippines, has recently commissioned a research on the PWD sector and how current laws and policies have served the sector. The research covered education, employment, public/social services, and civic participation. The findings warrant further exploration and action for policy review and development, program implementation, and capacity building. Here are the major insights from the research:

-Ample laws and commitments. There are ample enabling laws to operationalize the Constitutional mandate to help the Filipino PWDs. There are government agencies and the NGOs that aim to support the PWD sector. There are encouraging policy commitments to support the needs of the PWDs, but some laws need updating, amending and clarifying.

- Barriers continue to exist. Despite the enabling laws and encouraging policy commitments, many persons with disabilities still "experience barriers in accessing public and social services, quality education, equitable work and employment, and full participation in political and public life." We need to further strengthen and improve policy development and program implementation in order to reduce or surmount these barriers, if we are truly serious about advancing the rights of our brothers and sisters with disabilities.

- Policy and program implementation need improvements. The research found that "existing efforts are not sufficient to address existing barriers that hinder persons with disabilities from accessing their rights and participating in society on an equal basis with others. Current laws and policies are promising but are not fully implemented."

The research finds that "in the last 10 years, not a lot of improvement can be directly attributed to the efforts of the government to make our systems and environment more disability-inclusive. The policies and the program implementation were found to be more disability-specific and more segregated than removing barriers and promoting inclusion. As a whole, the PWD sector still cannot live an independent and meaningful life, with ample support from government."

The plight of the PWDs turned from bad to worse during the pandemic. Many members of the Deaf community were the last to hear (pardon the pun) about the pandemic. Many NGOs lobbied with government to include sign language interpreters and captions in their announcements on health issues and protocols. There were reports that many PWDs did not qualify for the "ayuda."

Of course, the pandemic hit everybody, but the impact is more severe among PWDs. We were hit by the same storm, but the PWDs are not in the same boat that the affluent members of our society are in.

"Clearly, there is still a long way to go regarding disability inclusion in the Philippines," the research concludes.

We need a whole-of-government and a whole-of-society approach to overcome the issues confronting our disabled brothers and sisters. We need to advocate not for charity, but for equity for this disadvantaged and vulnerable sector of our society. We must even revisit our mindset about this sector. We should stop treating the PWDs as liabilities of society - they can be productive if given the opportunity and the support.

Stephen Hawking said, "My advice to other disabled people would be: Concentrate on things your disability doesn't prevent you doing well, and don't regret the things it interferes with."

The world would be a better place if able people would help ensure that people with disabilities are given lives worth living.
Ernie Cecilia is the chairman of the Human Capital Committee and the Publication Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham); co-chairman of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines' (ECOP's) TWG on Labor Policy and Social Issues; and past president of the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP). He can be reached at [email protected]

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The 1987 Philippine Constitution recognizes the need to support vulnerable sectors of society, including persons with disabilities (PWDs). Article XIII, Section 13 provides that "the State shall establish a special agency for disabled persons for their rehabilitation, self-development, self-reliance and their integration into the mainstream of society."

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PWDs receive livelihood aid amid the pandemic

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PWDs receive livelihood aid amid the pandemic

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The Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) launched their Katulong at Gabay sa Manggagawang may Kapansanan (KaGabay) Program which provides special assistance to  Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) who have lost their jobs due during the pandemic (Department of Labor and Employment, 2020).

In the program, PWDs are provided with training and physical restoration to equip and better prepare them for the working environment.  Additionally, the program also offers other benefits such as cash incentives, medical reimbursements, free therapy and the like  (Department of Labor and Employment, 2020).

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PWDs get livelihood aid amid pandemic | Department of Labor and Employment

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News Release
Department of Labor and Employment September 5, 2020

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National Council on Disability

Center for Inclusive Policy

Philippine Coalition on UNCRPD

Foundation for These-Abled Persons

Adaptive Technology for Rehabilitation, Integration and Empowerment of the Visually Impaired

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It is important to include PWDs and their representatives in the development of policies

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It is important to include PWDs and their representatives in the development of policies

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Due to COVID restrictions, the economy was greatly halted and millions of Filipinos, including PWDs, were left jobless. In a rapid assessment survey conducted by Velasco et al. (2021), 70% of PWDs reported that their employment had been affected by the pandemic, ranging from a shift to work from home to being at risk of losing their jobs. Although there are program implemented by the government that are greatly beneficial, they are only able to provide for a small number of PWDs and require certain conditions to be met. One example is the KaGabay program of the Department of Labor and Employment which provided livelihood and financial aid during the pandemic to 49 beneficiaries. This program only included persons with work related disabilities who have lost employment due to work related sickness or injury. Several government programs also require PWDs to register and require proof of disability to be considered a beneficiary. However, these mechanisms  pose several challenges, causing several
PWDs to be overlooked.

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PWDs are often rejected in the job market

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PWDs are often rejected in the job market

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According to Boquila (2019), PWDs are not being hired in job interviews because there is not enough facilities in the workplace. This means that these companies are not "PWD-ready" to accommodate PWDs.

Source: [OPINION] Rejection is the norm for PWDs, especially in the job market (rappler.com)

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[OPINION] Rejection is the norm for PWDs, especially in the job market

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‘Over and over I’d hear lines of rejection from one employer after another. I was rejected not once, not twice, but more than 30 times!’