National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Week

Through Proclamation No. 361, every third week of July is National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Week. It starts on the 17th and culminates on the 23rd, the birthday of the sublime paralytic, Apolinario Mabini, whose exemplary and heroic dedication to the country serves as an inspiration to every Filipino.

The Gospel of St. Luke (5:17 ff.) narrates Jesus’ healing of the paralytic. When they found “no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus.”

The paralytic taught his friends the spirit of concern and care for others. The paralytic served as an instrument for Jesus to show his compassion and reconciling power.

As a Filipino country, we need to go beyond prevention and rehabilitation of our physical disabilities. Our political and religious affiliations should not make us handicapped to become a people of true bayanihan and pagdadamayan. Let us rediscover our moral, cultural and spiritual capacities that make us a people with malasakit to one another not only in times of disaster but at all times.