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DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 30 November) – An association of homegrown restaurant owners in Davao City expressed alarm over the proliferation of identification cards for persons with disability (PWD) that turned out to be fake and were reportedly used to obtain discounts on food purchases.
During the “Business Matters” media forum on Friday, Benjie Lizada, president of the Restaurant Owners Association of Davao City Inc., said that restaurant owners in the city noticed a spike in the number of able-bodied customers using questionable PWD IDs to obtain special privileges intended for differently abled individuals.“The restaurants are feeling it. Can you imagine, that in a table of 16, all of them have PWD cards? Again, if their IDs are valid, there will be no problem,” he said.He said several restaurant owners in Davao have expressed similar concerns.
Lizada said there is currently no mechanism to determine if the PWD IDs are original or fake.Some of these fake PWD IDs are reportedly available for sale to able-bodied individuals, he added.
Under Republic Act No. 10754, or an “Act Expanding Benefits and Privileges for with Disability,” PWDs get at least 20-percent discount and exemption from the value-added tax on “the fees and charges relative to the utilization of all services in hotels and similar lodging establishments; restaurants and recreation centers.”Lizada said the 20 percent taken off the PWD’s total purchase is not subsidized by the government but is shouldered by business owners.Lizada, whose family runs the restaurant chain TAPS, Harana, and Bistro Rosario, said the use of fake PWD IDs is hurting the restaurant business, particularly the homegrown establishments that are still recovering from the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.The restaurant association has no data on the revenue losses that establishments have already incurred but Lizada believed it could be a “significant number.”He said they are working with Resto PH, an association of restaurant owners in Manila, to discuss the possible solutions to the proliferation of fake PWD IDs.“There must be a solution,” he said, adding the National IDs could help address the problem.He noted that several restaurants in Davao have closed since the pandemic.From 889 restaurants in 2019, he said the number had gone down to 658 as of October 2024.He said local food and tourism-related establishments recorded an “abnormal growth” in 2019 because the city attracted a lot of tourists and hosted several conventions during the time of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
