SENATOR Miriam Defensor Santiago has filed a bill seeking to provide qualified interpreters to all judicial, quasi-judicial, investigating proceedings and public hearings involving deaf individuals.

“It aims to promote awareness within our legal system as to the duty of the state to provide its people, the marginalized most especially, access to the courts. The right of the deaf to the courts includes the right to adequate and effective legal representation and interpretation,” Santiago said in her Senate Bill 2741.

Of 213 cases involving the deaf, only 24 percent have court-appointed interpreters, 44 percent have volunteer interpreters, 21 percent have unconfirmed appointed interpreters, while 11 percent have no interpreters at all, according to a study of the Philippine Deaf Resource Center.

The same study showed that for 63 cases of unschooled deaf parties requiring a deaf relay interpreter, only 25 percent have been appointed one while the remaining 75 percent have none. More.

See: Sun.Star

Subscribe to the translation news daily digest here. See more translation news.