President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo handed yesterday the prestigious Apolinario Mabini Awards to 17 outstanding persons with disability and PWD-friendly individuals, establishments and institutions, in ceremonies held at Malacañang's Heroes Hall.

The Bacolod City government was one of those who headed the list of the 2005 Apolinario Mabini Awardees, together with Candon, Laoag, and Pasay, and the provincial governments of Bulacan and Batangas (Cuenca), a Malacañang press statement said yesterday.

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia received the award for the city.

The six LGUs were cited for their outstanding contributions in the rehabilitation of PWDs in their respective jurisdictions.

Bacolod City Special Education Center principal Carmen Salazar, who taught hearing-impaired students for the past 20 years and produced a book with illustrated sign language to make reading easy for PWDs, was awarded the "Mabini Presidential Award," the Malacañang statement said.

The awarding ceremonies coincided with the anniversary of the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons.

Launched in 1974 by the Philippine Foundation for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled Inc., the Apolinario Mabini Awards named after the "Sublime Paralytic" and the "Brains of the Philippine Revolution," aims to promote wider recognition of disabled persons as self-respecting and self-reliant citizens.

Also at the Malacañang rites with Leonardia, who had just flown in from the World Water Forum in Mexico, were Bacolod Councilor Ana Marie Palermo, Chairperson of the Social Services and Family and Child Care Development Committee of the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod; Jose Johann Mañoso, Persons with Disability leader of the city; Melchor Tumbos, 2004 Apolinario Mabini Awardee, and Lowell Raner, president of the Association of Disabled Persons for Negros.*

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