TO:	THE MINISTER OF LABOR

In view of the national policy to give equal opportunities for the disabled persons in socio-economic development, it becomes necessary that every tinge of discrimination against them be removed from our labor law.  One such discriminatory act relates to the payment of wages to handicapped persons lover than that paid to able bodied persons.  While it may be true that the lower wage was intended to be an incentive for employers to hire the handicapped, it may be discriminatory if the handicapped person is fully rehabilitated and as productive as the non-handicapped.  Another practice maybe the suspension of the monthly income benefit of the disabled the moment he is gainfully employed.

For those reasons, you are hereby instructed to give the matter your fullest attention and cause the study of these matters to ascertain the need of amending pertinent provisions of the Labor Code of the Philippines (P.D. 442 as amended) and the implementing rules and circulars to ensure the welfare of the disabled person.

Done in the City of Manila, this 26th day of July, nineteen hundred and seventy-nine.