ADELINE DUMAPONG HAS LONG BEEN BRINGing honor to the country as an athlete, competing in powerlifting events in the Paralympics, a parallel activity that usually takes place alongside or immediately before or after an Olympics.
Unfortunately, the Paralympics doesn?t receive as much media coverage or attention as the Olympics. This, even if the back stories of many of the disabled competitors at the Paralympics are more moving and interesting than those of the much-hyped Olympians.
Now, based on Adeline?s experience, it seems that local sports officials also do not consider the achievements of disabled athletes as important or significant as those of their able-bodied counterparts. In fact, as Adeline?s story reveals, sports big-wigs do not even consider disabled athletes as ?real? athletes, deserving of recognition, support or subsidies.
Although he expects the sports hierarchy to be reshuffled soon with the new Aquino administration, Mike Barredo, who heads Philspada, the local sports body for athletes with disabilities, says he decided to make public Adeline?s humiliating experience because ?how Ms Dumapong was treated/scolded instead of being praised and motivated? should not be allowed to pass without comment or consequences.
Adeline, Barredo reminds, is an athlete who has won medals for the Philippines in the Paralympics, Asean and Asian Para Games for powerlifting. Because of her achievements, Philspada endorsed her participation in the International Paralympic Committee Athlete Leadership Summit in Bonn, Germany.
It was in this context that Adeline wrote to Harry Angping, chair of the Philippine Sports Commission, requesting for financial support for her impending trip to Germany. The PSC is charged with the development of Filipino athletes, including supporting their international forays.
The following is Adeline?s account of her encounter with Angping, with some editing for brevity.
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?I WAS asked by the Chairman to meet him on June 7 regarding my request for financial assistance. I arrived at the PSC lobby around 11:15 a.m. and because I was in a wheelchair and could not go up to his fourth floor office (at once a violation of the accessibility code?RJD), I asked the guard to advise the chairman?s office of my arrival.
?However, the Chairman was busy and I was told by a member of his staff to just wait. I waited for more than two hours before Angping could finally see me. When he came down to the lobby, he apologized to the staff for his tardiness but not to me, in spite of the fact that he was the one who asked me to see him at the agreed time.
?He then called me to a corner and I was expecting that we would begin to discuss the details of my letter. But alas, he started loudly berating me concerning Philspada matters. I clearly remember him saying that the PSC is not mandated to help disabled athletes and that we (disabled athletes) should go to the DSWD instead. He also told me to tell Philspada officials and athletes not to ask any (more money) from the PSC because disabled sports are not competitive.
?I should have known that the Chairman?s tardiness without apology is an indication of how ?little? he sees me as a person. After hearing him vent for almost 30 minutes, I felt so beaten that I cried. I cried because of embarrassment; we were in the lobby of the PSC, for God?s sake! I cried out of frustration because I wanted to answer back but had to ?swallow? my words because of his position. Most of all I cried because of a sad truth that dawned on me: the chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission does not fully grasp the reality that ?Sports is for All,? including children, youth, women and people with disabilities. Despite occupying the highest position in the PSC, Chairman Angping needs to be enlightened that we now have the Magna Carta for People with Disabilities, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other laws that uplift and protect the rights of PWDS.?
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THE UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities declares that the state should enable ?persons with disabilities to participate on an equal basis with others in recreational, leisure and sporting activities,? including encouraging and promoting ?the participation, to the fullest extent possible, of persons with disabilities in mainstream sporting activities at all levels.?
By insisting that the PSC has no obligation to support the travel of an athlete with disability, and referring her instead to the DSWD, Angping obviously believes that an athlete with disability is not a real athlete but is instead a ?welfare? or charity case.
Should the Aquino administration tolerate the presence of such an ignorant, callous official in our sports hierarchy? And if he can berate in public an athlete with an obvious disability, I wonder how Angping treats all other athletes who fall under his authority.
Beyond acting on this specific case (which I hope it will), I also hope the Aquino administration will use this as an avenue to articulate the President?s own thinking on the rights of people with disabilities, and to formulate policies that would best allow the use of the resources and influence of government to promote the rights of PWDs, not just in the arena of sports but in all areas of life.
As my friends among the community of the disabled tell me, what they?re fighting for is not more privileges or special treatment, but only recognition of their rights as human beings and citizens. An ?enabling? environment is all they ask, not more charity or subsidy. Just give people with disabilities the chance to prove their worth and they will prove themselves worthy.
