Someone asked me to vote for the PWD Party, a political party representing persons with disabilities. Since I have not yet decided on which party to vote for, I was open to voting for this party.  However, I have a few issues I want to raise.

The PWD Card

In 2008, when my husband was diagnosed with heart disease, he also read a news item that discounts on medicines similar to that given to senior citizens was available to persons with disabilities.  It was easy to get the PWD card from my husband’s hometown as it was a small town where most people knew each other and so it wasn’t hard to prove that he did have a disability.  The municipal doctor was a childhood friend who was more than willing to give a medical certificate to the effect that my husband had poliomyelitis.

Using the PWD Card

I tried to use the PWD card at the biggest drugstore chain in the country.  In 2008, I was told that they could not give me the discount because their POS system software does not recognize the PWD card, only the senior citizen card.  Every Saturday, when I bought my husband’s medicines, I presented the card but for a year, they told me that the PWD had not yet been encoded into the system.  After a year, I got a phone call from the biggest drugstore chain in the country to tell me that the PWD card was already in the system.  When I got there on the next Saturday, I was told that although it was already in the system, it could not be used because the drugstore had filed a case questioning the validity of the implementing rules for the use of the PWD card.  After two years, I was at last able to use the PWD card and got the 20% discount due to my husband.

In contrast, I went to the biggest generics pharmacy chain and with no questions asked, I was given the 20% for PWDs.  All I had to bring was the prescription, the authorization letter and the ID.  From then on, I bought the bulk of my husband’s medicines from this generics pharmacy and only those medications that were not available from them do I buy from the biggest drugstore chain in the country.

Discount was only 8%, not 20%

When I bought medicines from the biggest drugstore chain, I looked at the receipt.  What the biggest drugstore chain does is that it deducts the 20% discount from the original cost of the medicine and then to this sum, the biggest drugstore chain adds the 12% e-vat.  I end up getting, in effect, only 8% discount because the difference of 12% is used to pay for the e-vat on the medicines purchased.  Yes, the biggest drugstore chain only gives an effective 8% discount to PWDs because it tacks on the 12% EVAT to the purchase after it has deducted the 20% due to the PWD.

Contrast this with the practice of the biggest generic pharmacy:  my purchases are totaled and the 20% discount is deducted.  The difference is all that I pay for.  At the bottom of the receipt, the amount I paid is broken down to reflect which part of the sum I paid for goes to e-vat and which goes as cost of the medicines.  In effect, the biggest generics pharmacy gives PWDs the full 20% discount and the biggest generics pharmacy shoulders the 20% e-vat cost.

The biggest drugstore chain, however, does the opposite.  It passes on the 12% e-vat onto the PWD such that the PWD who gets a 20% discount does not enjoy the full 20% and only enjoys, in truth, 8% discount on his purchases.

Senior discount for medicine is 32%

The senior citizens are luckier: an amendment to the law has allowed the discount for senior citizens to be increased to 32%.  This is a corrective law so that if the drugstore passes on the cost of the e-vat to the senior citizen, the senior citizen will still get the full 20%.  This kind of amendment to the law granting PWDs a discount on medicines has not yet been enacted.  My question then to the party list is: why?  And, what are you going to do about this?

The rationale for the law

The senior citizens’ discount is a privilege premised on the policy that senior citizens have contributed to the economic and societal growth of society during their working years, thus, the discounts they enjoy is well-deserved.  The same cannot be said for persons with disability.  Some persons with disability earn a living and contribute to the economic growth of the nation, but there are some persons with disability who cannot earn a living precisely because of their disability, and thus, they cannot contribute to the economic growth of the nation.  For this reason, shop owners seem to think that the discount privilege to PWD is a charitable dole-out.  It is not. The rationale for the PWD discount is different from the rationale for the senior citizen’s discount.

The Constitution clearly enunciates that the nation recognizes social justice as a national policy.  The Philippines is supposed to be a just and humane society which works so that each citizen is given the opportunity to develop to his full potential. The discount privilege granted to PWDs is a social justice measure meant to equalize opportunity.  PWDs who need medications to thrive must be given the opportunity to purchase medicines they need so that they can live their lives to their full potential because their contribution to society cannot be measured only by the economic value they contribute.

My crusade

I have begun my own personal crusade.  I do not patronize establishments that do not give the full 20% discount to PWDs.  I only shop and dine at places where the card is honored. When my husband renewed his PWD card last year, the head of the PWD office who was also a person with a disability asked, “Do you get to use your card at all?”  Yes, we answered.  We use it for groceries and for medicine and for medical tests.  He was surprised.  He said he has never even tried to use his card for fear of being told that it wasn’t honored.

When I tried to use the PWD car for the first time to get a discount for my husband’s blood chemistry tests, the receptionist said that they don’t honor the PWD card yet and she has to go to the manager to ask if they can honor it.  But she looked at me and said, “Never mind, I’ll just give you the senior citizen’s discount.  It’s the law, anyway.”  I didn’t say anything.  My husband has gotten his blood chemistry done at this clinic for years and they knew that they would lose my business if they did not honor the card. When I came to claim the results, the receptionist asked me the same question: “Is the PWD card honored in other establishments?” I answered, yes, for groceries, for medicines and at restaurants.  She said “I’ll tell my brother to get a PWD card.  He has polio, too, and he has asthma. Nauubos ang kita niya minsan sa gamot lang.”

Just this year, on April 2, 2013, my husband turned 60.  We don’t use the PWD card anymore.  We use the senior citizen card instead.  It has bigger discounts and it is readily accepted with no questions asked.  Does a person with a disability stop having the disability when he turns 60? Why cannot the discounts be used over and above the senior citizen discount?

Even a crusader like me gets fed up asserting rights…. I’ve been doing it for years.  Even my husband gets tired sometimes.  He says, “If they won’t take it, don’t push for it.  We won’t starve without the 65 peso discount for groceries.”  And what do I say? I’m not doing it for the 65 pesos.  I’m doing it for respect: respect for the law.  It is the law and they should comply with it.  I’m a lawyer.  I make a living off of the law.  I have to uphold the law.

What are you going to do with the issues I have raised, PWD party list? Are you going to truly work for an amendment of the law?  Are you going to put teeth into the law so that those who do not comply with the discount privileges for PWDs can be prosecuted? Just thought I should ask because it crossed my mind…..