CMDP Addresses need to Care for Deaf Children during the Multisectoral Meeting on Child Sexual Abuse

The Catholic Ministry to Deaf People, Inc. tackles on the needs of Deaf children who are suffering from sexual abuse during the multisectoral meeting held at the Caritas Manila Auditorium, Pandacan last February 10 coinciding with the national celebration of Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Week.

The meeting was attended by various government and non-government agencies, as well as educational institutions all over Metro Manila including MCCID. The group discussed about the situations being handled by CMDP and they also presented cases of abused survivors. 

After the presentation, groups were formed based on their fields of specialization like interpreting, schools, parents, deaf students and government organizations. They discussed about how to prevent a deaf child from sexual abuse and also to intervene and manage their individual cases. They were able to form proposed solutions to address these pressing problems.

Sr. Maria Santhosham "Joy" L. Cristal, SDS, CMDP Mental Health Program Coordinator challenged those who attended to be vigilant and continue to actively support the Deaf in the issue of abuse. The must be educated especially those who are inside the schools and protected against those who would take advantage of their handicapped.

Three members of a deaf-mute theater group based in Manila were killed while seven others were hurt when a tire of their van burst and sent the vehicle crashing along the North Luzon Expressway in San Simon town in Pampanga early February 2.

The group was on its way to La Paz, Tarlac, to perform in a religious show sponsored by the Archdiocese of Tarlac. Reports said that Tamaraw FX were the 10 victims were riding in turned turtle after the vehicle's right rear tire burst. The victims were members of the Teatro Silencio Pilipinas  (TSP). Killed instantly were Peter Dennis Manahan, 25 and parent-coordinators Aida Cruz and Ofelia Balan, mother of Dennis Balan, one of the Deaf leaders of the group. The accident left their bodies and face severely crushed, hospital reports said. 

Manahan was seated next to driver Eduardo Mendoza, 31, who suffered serious injuries in the head and body. Also seriously injured were deaf artists Jennifer Ramirez and Anthony Dotellos, both 23. Irene Calderon, TSP coordinator, and three other members suffered minor bruises and were treated at Jose B. Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital in San Fernando, Pampanga. (Philippine Daily Inquirer Central Luzon Desk News)

The victims were already laid to rest a week after the accident. The rest of the injured have fully recovered and are back to work. They are now seriously studying their cases as they threaten to sue the organizers of the event and TSP for neglecting to shoulder the hospital expenses that they incurred. 

Dr. James Woodward, well known author of books about the deaf like "Sign Language of Sexual Behavior" and a professor of Gallaudet University, spoke about the interpreting issues in Asia during the 3rd Deaf Education Weekend Seminar held last February 26 to 27 at De La Salle University-College of St. Benilde Campus.

Dr. Woodward, who has made in-depth studies of training teachers and interpreters for the deaf at Ratchasuda College in Thailand, emphasized on providing Deaf people with the expertise to become effective sign language teachers and help in training future interpreters. He also tackled on the need to ensure the rights of Deaf people to control the teaching of their own language.

Dubbed "Deaf Education and Interpreting in Asia:Focus on the Philippines and Vietnam", the seminar was also attended by hearing participants from Republic of Vietnam. They also presented the status of deaf schools in their country.

Dr. Yolanda Quijano, Chief of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports, Special Education, was also one of the guest speakers. She provided the overview of Deaf education in the Philippines on the secondary and elementary level. She addressed the need to remove the gaps in providing educational services to children with special needs like inadequate funds, imbalance between supply and demand for trained teachers, limited equipment, materials and supplies and attitudinal  barriers.

Dr. Liza Martinez, CSB Coordinator was also one of the speakers. She tackled on the issues besetting the deaf in the Philippines. She cited the interpreter as a linguist cross-cultural mediator. The Philippines must focus on the issues such as: (1) belief of Filipino Sign Language (FSL) as a living language; (2) modernization and intellectualization of signs; (3)standardization of signs; (4) lexicalization of initialization; (5) voice interpreting to what language; (6) choice of signs i.e. FSL, SEE and (7) ethics or personal linguistic and cultural biases. She also cited some modern computer signs she gathered from the interview made to MCCID Deaf Coordinator, Ervin Reyes.

The seminar was spearheaded by Dr. Ron Brouillette, Steering Committee chairman. 

Licensed interpreters all over Metro Manila gathered together to attend a general meeting called for by the Philippine Registry of Interpreters of the Deaf (PRID), the Philippine counterpart of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, at the Philippine School for the Deaf, Pasay City last March 20.

More than 50 interpreters attended the meeting including MCCID Training Director, Jojo I. Esposa. Mrs. Yolanda Capulong, PRID Officer-in-charge spearheaded the affair.  Important matters discussed include issuance of new interpreters' ID, guidelines for renewing the existing card, applying for license even without PRID training but must pass the evaluation, inclusion of Deaf evaluators and subsequently deaf interpreters as well as assigning contact persons for respective areas within Metro Manila.

MCCID ONLINE gets the Deaf Watch Award as it Celebrates its 2nd Year on the Internet

MCCID Online, the first and only web site dedicated to the Filipino Deaf community recently received the prestigious Deaf Watch Award given by the Deaf Watch Newsletter of Orange County, California for complying with their criteria in promoting the cause of the hearing impaired worldwide.

Richard Roehm, Chief Editor of Deaf Watch Newsletter commented that MCCID Online has an "excellent resource" when it comes to deaf related information from the Philippines. Now celebrating on its second year in the internet, MCCID Online continues to provide comprehensive database about the Filipino Deaf and the latest happenings in the Philippine Deaf community.

To see the Deaf Watch Newsletter review, visit their web site at:

Manila Christian Computer Institute for the Deaf started writing individual letters addressed to various government leaders last February asking for the removal of death penalty sentence to Marlon Parazo.

A total of 26 students sent out individual letters addressed to Pres. Joseph Estrada, Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Senator Robert Jaworski and Congressman Roilo Golez as well as "Letters to the Editor" to Manila Bulletin and Philippine Daily Inquirer. The letters indicate their request for clemency to Marlon's sentence. All deaf students asked that his sentence be lowered to life imprisonment. They are all hoping and praying that their pleas will be answered.

Marlon Parazo, guilty of rape with attempted homicide in his hometown in Nueva Ecija is scheduled to die of lethal injection this year.

MCCID Online, in cooperation with Zap Zone Networks is now offering free e-mail services to Filipino Deaf community who don't have access to the internet. 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 2nd batch graduate, Leah Lopez bested all the hearing employees and among her 14 other deaf counterparts by winning the Encoder of the Year award during this years' Team Building Seminar sponsored by NOVA Management Corporation last March 6 held at the Westmont Condominium, Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

This was the first time that NOVA Management gave the award. The company is a data encoding services corporation that accepts hearing impaired in their work force. They currently employ more than 50 workers in both data control and encoding division.  All of their deaf workers are MCCID graduates who passed their rigid screening of 15,000 keystrokes per hour typing speed and skill in computer literacy on Windows based programs.

Mr. PJ Agcaoili, President and Chief Executive Officer of NOVA expressed his tremendous gratitude for the performance given by Leah Lopez who has worked in the company for almost three years now. She topped both the work and character evaluation. She received P1,000 cash reward aside from the certificate of recognition.

Aside from Leah, three more MCCID graduates got the top awards. They are Aldrin Medina, Perfect Attendance Award; Reynaldo Famisan, Most Promising Employee and Joel Billedo, Most Improved Performance Award. Each received P500 cash reward aside from the certificate of recognition.

Other NOVA top management team who evaluated their performance includes Mr. Rod Nolasco and Mr. Pat Dimaano, VP for Operations and Ms. Bella Naguit, Personnel Officer.

MCCID Online launched the Features Tab portion of the web site dedicated to showcase model Filipino Deaf individuals as well as agencies for the deaf based in the Philippines.

Each issue of MCCID Online (hopefully to be made on a monthly basis) will feature new Filipino Deaf person that qualifies as a good role model to other deaf and companies that dedicate their effort and time in advancing the cause of the hearing impaired in the Philippines. In our maiden issue, we will focus on the profiles of  Ms. Carolina T. Cordero, for Deaf Individual and Catholic Ministry to Deaf People for the agency portion. 

If you like to be featured on our next issue or you have some recommendation on a particular person or agency, please e-mail us complete with the data and scanned picture. We will gladly evaluate them and inform you of its release.

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