The Philippine delegation led by National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons Executive Director Atty. Dulfie Shalim and Abilympics Philippines representative Nelia De Jesus participated in the 7th International Abilympics Skills Competition held at Shizuoka, Japan from November 13 – 19, 2007.
A total of 11 persons with disabilities who won during the 12 Philippine National Skills Competition including MCCID alumni Dianne Barcelona, Aldrin Gabriel and Glenn Ortega. They did their best in competing against champions from 29 countries. Sir Jojo Esposa was among the coaches and the official sign language interpreter.
Eventhough no one was able to bring home medals, it was a learning experience from the group. However, unofficially, only Aldrin Gabriel received the highest rank among the group (4th place) in English Desktop Publishing contest. This was according to the Filipino judge, Engr. Jeanette Reyes. Ms. Reyes is the TESDA representative of the group.
However, issues were raised during the post-assessment of the event in comparison with previous competitions where the Philippines participated. Among them were the inclusion of Japanese as head judges in all competitions, non-display of finished products after the contest and the non-posting of complete rankings of all the competitors. The group hopes that these concerns will be resolved on the next skills competition to be held in Seoul, South Korea in September 2011.
