The Supreme Court Upholds the Deaf Workers Welfare Against Far East Bank and Trust Company

The Supreme Court recently ordered  the payment of back wages and separation benefits, in lieu of reinstatement, to 27 deaf-mutes who were illegally dismissed by a bank in 1993.

The High Court applied the law that mandates that qualified disabled persons must be given the same terms and conditions of employment as qualified able bodied workers. This was the first time that the Tribunal interpreted the provisions of the 1992 Magna Carta for Disabled Persons (Republic Act No.7277) in a case filed by 43 deaf-mutes who were dismissed as
money sorters and counters by the Far East Bank and Trust Co. (FEBTC). 

The decision was written by Associate Justice Artemio V. Panganiban and concurred in by Senior Associate Justice Flerida Ruth P. Romero and Associate Justice Jose C. Vitug, Fidel P. Purisima, and Minerva P. Gonzaga Reyes. Of the 43 deaf-mutes who appealed their dismissal before the Supreme Court, only 27 were declared to be regular employes and qualified for the payment of backwages and separation benefits since the others worked with the bank for less than six months. 

They were identified in the decision as Marites Bernardo, Elvira Diamante, Rebecca David, David Pascual, Raquel Estiller, Albert Hallare (MCCID student), Edmund Cortez, Joselito Agdon, George Ligutan, Jr., Lilibeth Marmolejo, Jose Sales, Isabel Mamauag, Violeta Montes, Albino Tecson, Melody Gurela, Bernadeth Agero, Cynthia de Vera, Lani Cortez,
Ma. Isabel Concepcion, Margaret Cecilia Canoza, Thelma Sebastian, Ma. Jeanette Cervantes, Jeannie Ramil, Rozaida Pascual, Pinky Baloloa, Elizabeth Ventura, and Grace Pardo( MCCID graduate).

The High Court said the 27 deaf-mutes were entitled to reinstatement after it found that they were illegally dismissed. But because their positions as money sorters and counters had been
phased out by the bank and returned to regular tellers, they are now entitled to payment of backwages and separation benefits, it said. 

For more details, visit the Manila Bulletin web site link.

Top officials of an association advocating the cause of Deaf people assailed the Philippine Sports Commission yesterday for not  supporting a special sports event for the deaf held in Baguio City recently. 

Describing PSC's move as a ''blatant neglect of the deaf,'' Simeon Hart, project director of the Deaf Sports Philippines, said PSC officials rejected their proposal for the PSC to sponsor the second National Games for the Deaf held at the Teachers' Camp. 

Speaking through an interpreter, Hart said PSC officials earlier told him that PSC had other priority projects and lacked funds to finance a sports competition for the deaf. He said they instead referred him to other organizations. Hart, however, did not name the PSC officials whom DSP representatives talked to. 

 ''We feel we are always left behind. We are deaf and yet some people do not understand and support us. Why don't they just give us the chance to show that we can be serious in sports,'' he said. ''Our letters were dumped. Probably, we are not in their priorities. Why not? Most people have no respect for the deaf.'' 

Since the PSC refused to help them, Hart said they  started soliciting funds from private agencies and individuals who supported their cause. Hart said around 740,000 Filipinos are deaf. Of this number, 65 percent are male. He said more than 300 deaf athletes nationwide have participated in the national games at Teachers' Camp. 

The games will prepare Filipino deaf athletes for the Asia-Pacific Deaf Sports Confederation next year in Taiwan and World Deaf Games to be held in Italy in 2001. 

For more details, visit the Philippine Daily Inquirer web site link.

"We are deaf but not dumb."

While the world is debating over freedom of expression, a group of special people wants to   speak out their mind and heart in an ultimate language they know: Sign. 

Unknown to many, the deaf, who are estimated to be 740,000 in the Philippines, are exerting efforts to rectify the misconception branded against them by what they describe as the ''hearing society.''  In fact, when more than 300 deaf athletes in the country recently flocked to the Teachers' Camp in Baguio City to compete in the second National Games for the Deaf, not a few expressed doubts whether they could hold a special sports event. 

Probably. And yet, for the deaf, this is no joke. Cristopher Gregorio, a deaf teacher and newly installed Deaf Sports Philippines president, said the special sports  event aimed to debunk the dubious beliefs that the deaf are abnormal, disabled and less productive citizens. 

'We are only deaf but not dumb. We are neither illiterate nor stupid like what most people perceive us to be. We would like to rectify that error,'' he said through an interpreter. 

 What then is the politically correct term for the deaf? ''Call us linguistic minority,'' signed Simeon Hart of the Volunteer Services Overseas, a non-government organization based in the United Kingdom.  ''It would be better to call us a linguistic minority because language is only our barrier,'' he signed. 

Mute, according to Gregorio, is degrading because it connotes lack of or no communication at all. Some of the deaf use what is called as cued speech where sign language orsign is coupled with mouth gestures. 

 'Simply call us deaf. Never use mute to describe us, please. You are adding insult to injury,'' he said. Another common yet inappropriate description for the deaf is hearing impaired. For the linguistic minority, Gregorio said, that phrase meant being dumb, and therefore, made them lesser individuals.  ''We have no physical defect. Our problem is how to interact with other people who do not know sign language,'' he signed. 

For more details, visit the Philippine Daily Inquirer web site link.

The Supreme Court ordered recently a re-arraignment and re-trial of a death convict, whose penalty it had earlier affirmed, after a medical team found that he is "a deaf-mute with a mind of a seven-year-old child."

Ordered re-arraigned and re-tried on charges of rape with attempted murder was Marlon Parazo who was charged with abusing and attempting to kill a 21year-old student in 1995. Parazo was tried and convicted by the Nueva Ecija regional trial court in late 1995. His death sentence was affirmed by the Supreme Court on May 14, 1997. 

The Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) took up the cudgels for Parazo. This prompted the Supreme Court to form a medical team led by its own physician, Dr. Rosa Mendoza, to conduct a thorough neurologic and otolaryngologic examinations. The medical team diagnosed Parazo "as a deaf-mute with mild mental retardation and intelligence quotient of 60." 

With Parazo's physical infirmities, the team opined that "in all probabilities, he did not understand the full facts of the offense that he was charged with." 

For more details, visit the Manila Bulletin web site link.

Judge Feliciano  Buenaventura, Nueva Ecija's ''hanging judge,'' has asked Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. to relieve him of his assignment as presiding judge of the special court for heinous crimes here. 

Buenaventura cited ''emotional stress'' as one of the  reasons for his request.  He said his family had been subjected to threats of harm from the families and friends of two persons he had sentenced to death. 

'I am not resigning as a judge. Why should I?'' Buenaventura told the Inquirer. He was reacting to reports from another national daily that he had resigned. Buenaventura convicted Marlon Parazo of Cabanatuan  City and sentenced him to die by lethal injection in March 1995 for raping and stabbing an education student. 

 The Supreme Court recently ordered Parazo's retrial following findings by doctors that the convict is deaf and has an intelligence quotient equivalent to that of an 8-year-old. 

 For more details, visit the Philippine Daily Inquirer web site link.

Beware of the following Deaf:

MCCID authorities found this out when they received a "Congratulatory Message" from Hon. Elizabeth Z. Rivera, Councilor of 6th District, Manila. The letters were addressed to Lacap as Chairman, Lazano as Vice President and Sunga as President of a fictitious organization named "Catholic Club of the Deaf, Inc." using the MCCID office.

Inquiries from legitimate Deaf organizations as well as Deaf Catholic groups informed MCCID that there is no such agency as Catholic Club of the Deaf and that they also received reports from other groups that these same people have also been victimizing other companies. Catholic Ministry for the Deaf, Inc., through its head Ms. Tess Buenaventura also informed MCCID that they too were victimized by these and other factions posing as legits.

MCCID has already informed other Deaf organizations as well as passed a complaint from the National Bureau of Investigation about these groups and their modus operandi. 

Watch our for them. Here are some of their tactics.
           1. They show you an anomalous letter complete with alleged signatures of their head. - Sometimes, they get hold of letter head communication from real agencies and forge the signatures. They are real Deaf. But some are only acting out. Test them if they can hear.If they show you these, try to contact the number on the letter head and inquire about these. This is what a company from Makati did to protect himself. When he got hold of the letter, he immediately contacted the agency and when he turned again, the Deaf immediately went out to the door.
           2. Some of them give out letters and envelopes to the jeep or bus-riding public. - Later they get them expecting money inserted inside. DON'T BE FOOLED.
           3. Others try to visit schools and universities befriending you and motioning you for a piece of paper thinking that they want to communicate to you. - He/she would then write in mixed English -Tagalog words telling them about their pitiful life and later on asks for your financial support. If that happens ask for a contact person whom you can verify and threaten him/her that if he is illegal, then he can be jailed for fooling people.

The Philippine Federation of the Deaf in cooperation with various non-government agencies recently held a symposium on the quality of interpreting skills and its relation to proper access to education.

Held at the Philippine Blind Union in MaryHill Ortigas Ave., Taytay, Rizal, the three-day seminar tackles on the need to upgrade the interpreting skills of the existing interpreters as well as educators. The Deaf needs to absorb the information that they fail to grasp due mainly to lack of skilled interpreters. 

MCCID ONLINE gets Christian Web Site of the Day for April 26, 1999 and Useful Stuff on the Web 

MCCID Online, the first and only web site dedicated to the Filipino Deaf community again  received another award given by  Christian Web Site of the Day by Elton Smith  and
Larry Ingram of hollyscriptures.com. It was chosen to be the Web Site of April 26, 1999. 

Christian Web Site of the Day can be accessed at:
http://www.serve.com/larryi/siteday.htm
  MCCID Online can now be accessed using the  V3 Redirection Services utility at:

MCCID Online, in cooperation with Zap Zone Networks free e-mail services to Filipino Deaf community who don't have access to the internet now has more than 50 subscribers. Similar to popular free e-mail services like Hotmail, Mail Excite and Usa.Net, MCCID Online  delivers a web based internet e-mail service where you can send, receive and compose messages.

Once they log in to MCCID Online Web site, they can click on the E-mail tab on top of the screen. Then, they will be transported to the E-mail service while it is being anchored on the web site. All students of MCCID have been using this free service since it started last February. This free e-mail system generates e-mail addresses that is saved on the US server bearing an @mccid.zzn.com address. This would definitely be free for all deaf in the Philippines. For example: Oscar Purificacion can be accessed at ongkie@mccid.zzn.com.

You can go directly to e-mail service at:

MCCID celebrated its 6th founding anniversary last September 25, at MCCID Lecture room. The affair was attended by current students as well as alumni from the first batch up to the 1999 graduates.

This year's theme is "Y2K and The Deaf". The special guest speaker was Mr. Jose S. Austria, (Deaf) coordinator of Proj. 6 Baptist church Deaf ministry. He congratulated all the students who are making the opportunity of studying and improving their lives. Some 80 deaf students and graduates attended this "NO TALK ONLY SIGN" yearly event.

MCCID is blessed with an increase in the number of students as well as some of the graduates getting good jobs. Sir Jojo Esposa discussed about the Year 2000 phenomenon and how the Deaf would be affected. They became aware of the threat of not preparing for this "supposedly" disaster. But he calmed the Deaf students that so long as they PRAY and completely trust in Jesus Christ, nothing will happen to them.

The students also had a happy time joining games like "Pera o Bayong" the popular TV game as well as Bingo. 

Atty. Mike Arroyo, VP-Gloria's husband accepts 3 more MCCID Deaf Graduates

Another blessing for MCCID, Atty. Mike Arroyo, the loving husband of Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo again showed his concern for the plight of the hearing impaired by accepting three more graduates to work in his company.

Even though the government is cash strapped and hiring of additional employees has been halted since 1997 due to economic crisis, Atty. Arroyo still kept his promise by accepting Christine Rivero, Antonina Patricio and Arvin Castuciano to work as Data Encoders in his law firm at LTA Building in Makati City.

"We practice what we preach," is his motto that is why he continues to help those who are less fortunate and encourages other companies to also do the same thing. VP Arroyo is also the secretary of Department of Social Welfare and Development.

SIR MIKE ARROYO and FAMILY - MABUHAY PO KAYO!!!!

.Click to go back to Home Page