Maria (not her real name) makes the effort to commute for half an hour with her two children – an 11 year old and a 6 year old – in a barangay in San Pedro, Laguna. Through long lines and cramped rides, the entire trip into town takes over half an hour, but it’s been an essential struggle: her kids with disabilities, reports Philstar.
Her eldest has cerebral palsy while her youngest has ADHD. Both of them go through therapy sporadically, but only when they can afford it. When they can’t, Maria has to endure epileptic seizures and constant tantrums at home, which she says has taken a toll on her. But this is life as usual for their family.
Under the Luzon-wide lockdown – quarantine, relief is no longer a possibility. For the time being, this will have to be the norm in her household.
Even with a heart sickness limiting how much she can carry, Maria says the physical strain and the mental fortitude needed to adjust to her children’s moods and needs are not a problem—she’s been their guardian for this long, after all.
But what she does lose sleep over is how long their provisions can last, and what to do next if they don’t.
For a nation whose charter claims to uphold the rights of persons with disabilities, quarantines have largely left the Filipino poor in uncertainty, particularly informal workers for whom staying at home was not an option, along with those who do not have homes to self-isolate to begin with.
In the Philippines, measures pushing for heightened social distancing have left the country’s vulnerable falling through the cracks, and advocacy groups for the disability community don’t think such a measure is feasible for persons with disabilities.
