Broken silence

By EJ Dominic Fernandez
Criminal charges were formally filed before the Municipal Trial Court against two officials of one of the city’s biggest malls for violating Republic Act No. 7277 known as the Magna Carta for Persons with Disability.
Charged were Jessica Canasa, officer-in-charge of Gaisano Mall Davao cinema; and Joe Choa-Shi, comptroller of DSG Sons Group, Inc., which owns Gaisano Mall Davao.
The charges were filed by city government employee Grace Sarion, deaf mute personnel of the City Treasurer’s Office and resident of Matina Crossing, Davao City, who was refused by the said mall officials after she was deployed as movie ticket checker.
City prosecutor Marte Melchor Velasco recommended the filing of charges against Canasa and Choa-Shi after finding probable cause of the complaint filed by Sarion. This is the first time in Davao City that a criminal case has been filed for discriminating a person with disability (PWD).
Velasco recommended a bail of P12,000 each for both respondents. The case was docketed as Municipal Trial Court Criminal Case No. 145.721-20 dated April 01, 2013.
Edge Davao checked with the court yesterday but was told that the case is yet to be raffled.
The case stemmed from the assignment of Sarion on April 14, 2012, as movie ticket checker assigned at Gaisano Mall cinema by Esperanza G. Parinas, city government moviehouse inspector.
However, Canasa and Choa-chi allegedly rejected Grace Sarion’ assignment as movie ticket checker of Gaisano Mall Cinema because of her physical disability as a deaf-mute. In a letter dated August 12, 2012, Cho-shi said in part their reason for refusing Sarion.
The refusal, according to the letter, was based on the ground that Sarion’s “incapacity to speak and hear might be misunderstood by our customers as non-accommodative, who might have a negative impact on us, which may prejudice our cinema, especially in the instances if she is left alone as movie checker.”
Association of Differently Able Persons (ADAP) president Redendo Martinez said, “at last the differently abled persons will have a taste of the ‘Magna Carta for Persons with Disability,’ because most of the differently able persons in the city who experience discrimination can’t complain against bigger entities.”
“This serves as a warning to all establishments, that differently able persons should not be taken lightly, and that ADAP is here to help them (Differently able persons),” he said.
“The government gave an opportunity for the differently abled persons by giving them their salary as ticket checkers in cinema houses, but then big entities reject them, this is not good,” he said.
Martinez said, “since August 30, 2012 until present, no one from the side of Gaisano Mall approached them to make amends and ask for apologies.”