The Office of the Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities is without a person to lead it, while its advisory council is short of three appointments that Governor Pedro Pierluisi has not made and, in addition, the Senate has failed to comply with promises to investigate issues affecting this population.
These were some of the complaints made yesterday by the Broad Coalition of Functional Diversity for Equality (Cadfi), in a demonstration in the north square of the Capitol called "Marathon of justice."
The group - which brings together multiple organizations and community leaders - also denounced obstacles in the Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP) to process special parking permits, as well as highly onerous and complex processes for those people who have chronic incurable conditions.
David Figueroa, president of the coalition, assured that the municipalities and other agencies are not doing what corresponds to them either, for which nine judicial appeals have been filed before the Federal Court.
“We have grown tired of telling the government what to fix. We always bring our proposals to them, but none of them are attended to,” lamented Figueroa, who relies on a wheelchair to get around.
In the past decade, the office in charge of ensuring compliance with the laws and regulations that protect people with disabilities has lost 75% of the budget, according to a recent investigation by EL VOCERO.
What is now known as the Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities also lost more than 25% of the over 80 employees it had 10 years ago.
Gabriel Corchado has been interim director of the agency since December 2017. The agency has been in receivership since 2016.
For the coalition, it is time to appoint someone in property, as well as the three people who should make up the advisory council of the defense.
Mirta Colón Pellicier, secretary of Cadfi, indicated that the president is aware of the situation because a letter was sent to him and from the office that works appointments in La Fortaleza they promised to send him the information.
“We are doing what the Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities or the government does not do, even though we do not receive the money that office receives,” said Figueroa, while maintaining that in 10 years that office has barely had a case to the courts, while they have initiated different actions against the municipality of Toa Alta, the Metropolitan Bus Authority (AMA) and the Las Américas Clinic for various situations that affect them.
The claim to the Senate is not to make new laws, because they believe that the existing ones, for the most part, provide clear guidelines to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities.
What they are looking for is that the operation of the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration be investigated and that an eye visit be made at their rehabilitation center in Río Piedras because they understand that they are not complying with the offer of services such as physical therapies, the construction of prostheses or adapted driving lessons.