Of PWDs and POSDs

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza

BAGUIO CITY -- For the nth time, the Public Order and Safety Division (POSD) under the city mayor’s office is under question, after its personnel allegedly accosted a Person with Disability (PWD) this time.
    There were instances in the past when POSD personnel were faulted for going out of bounds of their assigned tasks as enforcers of peace and order in the streets of Baguio but no cases were ever filed in the regular courts.
    The reasons were obvious. Understandably, court litigation costs extra money and needs extra time, two necessary elements which are not readily available especially when the complainants are ordinary persons such as vendors, porters, PWDs, among others.
    This time, a showdown in the city council is expected as Baguio City Councilor Arthur Allad-iw called for an investigation on the alleged violation of human rights of a visually impaired man by a POSD personnel.
    The PWD known as Madino Codasi who was accosted and issued a jaywalking citation ticket last week, is also set to sue the POSD personnel in court, with the help of volunteer lawyers, evenwhile the case was submitted to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).
    Councilor Allad-iw, a PWD rights supporter claimed Codasi, an itinerant flower vendor in the city who hails from Northern Benguet is nearing total blindness and has to cross streets with a buddy. Together with a companion who was carrying a heavy load of flowers, they allegedly jaywalked.
    Medically, Codasi’s right eye condition is totally blind while the left eye can only see shapes and shadows. Councilor Allad-iw said, Codasi had to come home to undergo a serious eye operation that disrupted his status as an OFW. He now had to do odd jobs such as selling flowers to make ends meet.  
    While crossing, the POSD personnel called Codasi and his buddy on a megaphone that was blurting out unclear sounds, approached them and scolded the two with bad language, Allad-iw said. But even after explaining their side and showing his PWD ID, the citation tickets were still issued.
    Councilor Allad-iw was also told that before being accosted by the POSD who was identified in the citation ticket as a certain N. Wanas; it was obvious that Codasi and his buddy were not sure if they were the ones being called via the megaphone.
    They were treated wrongly and were told unsavory words as if they were not humans, and given that they may have jaywalked, they should not be treated that way, Allad-iw said.
    Furthermore, POSD Wanas even questioned the blind man why he did not sign the ticket on the space provided for, even when the latter already informed him that he was blind.
    On the other side, naturally the bosses of the POSD would say that the acts of their men were just and lawful, to the extent that they come up with rosy reports that would protect their personnel.
    In the report that attempts to justify the POSD actions against Codasi and his companion, it dragged the Persons with Disability Affairs Office (PDAO) under the City Mayor's Office, saying that the said office admits that abuse by the “use of the PWD cards to gain undue advantage over others or for circumventing rules amongst their community is not uncommon.”
But that is exactly the reason why we issue IDs to these sectors because of their defects. That is the advantage these sectors of society get. We understand that they are treated differently because of their defects.  
    If that is not so, we should then stop honoring the IDs of PWDs, even the IDs of Senior Citizens because the holders are abusing the use of their cards to gain undue advantage.
    Or maybe persons with no physical defects should be given PWD IDs and those who have yet to reach the age of 60 be issued Senior Citizens IDs so that we will all be at par with the real PWDs and Senior Citizens. And the persons with defects will no longer gain undue advantage.
    The report that attempted to justify the POSD actions over Codasi and his guide was good and one-sided. It is also understandable that both the POSD and PDAO have to take the side of the office that gives them power and logistics. Both offices under the mayor’s office have to protect and not destroy each other, hence all their reports are sanitized to appear rosy to the head office.
    By the way, a petition to remove the POSD head on the grounds of maltreatment, harassment, official misconduct, and abuse of official position was also launched online, but that is another story.
    Well, pictures sent through the FB messenger of a person pointing a gun’s barrel to his mouth and a big knife to his face is something that cannot be considered as normal. That is described as “ada sayad na” (things are not running smoothly).
Codasi’s case is not the first that the city council tried to probe because of allegations of wrongful acts committed by POSD personnel. In June of 2014, ambulant vendor Oscar Caranto of Basista, Pangasinan allegedly died in the hands of POSD men. 
    Caranto was allegedly mauled June 24 at the POSD office at the public market then later at the main police station by POSD men. He died June 27 at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center
    In 2019, taho vendor Benedick Seño also came in conflict with POSD men who apprehended him by force after asking for his vendor’s permit.
    The POSD men backed off when Seño decided to leave, but the POSD personnel who accosted him earlier opened the rear door of the taxi and grabbed his taho containers.
    Seño then went out of the taxi to stop the POSD men from taking the containers. They wrestled but the POSD men outnumbered Seño and took away his taho containers whose contents were scattered on the ground.
    At the city council, Seño narrated the life of itinerant vendors who have to put up with the POSD, a testimony that showed the POSD men were operating according to unlegislated and unwritten rules. In short, the POSD was operating outside the law.
    Indeed, the cases of Codasi, Caranto, Seño and the unpublished abuses by POSD men in the past should be the basis for the city council to legislate rules of engagement to be followed by all POSD personnel.,.
    It is time, the city council passes a law that will be the legal basis for the creation of the POSD, including the qualifications and standards of its personnel, or get rid of them altogether. At present, its operation is not backed by an approved ordinance, not even an administrative order.
    In the past, persons claiming to be POSD workers were seen accosting just anybody that caught their attention, including vendors, comboys (porters), jueteng collectors, among others.
    A dozen of them were also used to terrorize the peaceful turnover of management of the Asin Hot Springs at Barangay Nangalisan in Tuba and grab its operation by force, despite an agreement between the parties concerned.
    They were also scattered at the night market along Harrison Road acting like they were the bosses of the stall owners. I think they were also seen distributing and posting campaign material during elections which was outside their job description.