A mere visit in Marawi becomes an eye opener to the Founder and President of Crimes and Corruption Watch International (CCWI) Carlo Batalla to help the most neglected sector in the country, the People with Disability (PWD).
At first, their intention in Marawi is to distribute relief packs to the victims and displaced families of Marawi siege. Along with him is VAdm. Andres B. Visaya Jr., PCGA, PhD. and Felix Marlo Borja.
When they are in the market in Iligan City, they found out that there are many trucks for distribution of relief packs. So, instead they distributed One Thousand Pesos Cash in Marawi Evacuation Center.
Carlo Batalla, also found out that the comfort room area for the evacuation center is too far and there are many PWD’s are helpless due to unavailability of wheelchair.
They decided to buy 2 units of wheelchair at first, same they did in another evacuation center. And another 20 wheelchair was donated to a friend of VAdm. Visaya who is a Mayor at that time, who thought that Batalla will be running for Senator.
Today, there are around 70 thousand wheelchairs were donated all over the country or around 560M spent for this project.
According to Batalla, the sector of PWD was the most neglected sector because politician did not allocate budget thinking that politicians will not benefit from this sector.
Batalla also disclosed that his colleagues in CCWI and Batalla Cares helped him a lot and has the same compassion to PWD’s.
Carlo Batalla, together with his team in Crimes and Corruption Watch International and Batalla Cares will continue helping People with Disabilities and continue fighting corruption at the same time.#
