The NVRC athletes of the 2012 Paralympics, together with Mr. Alex Teves, (on wheelchair), NVRC Instructor and Paralympic sports coordinator during the recent Paralympics competition at Marikina sports complex

 

Alex Teves, 50 years old and orthopedically impaired, is a trainer in Consumer Electronics at the National Vocational Rehabilitation Center (NVRC), a non-residential facility managed by the DSWD-NCR. The center provides social and vocational rehabilitation trainings to persons with disabilities (PWDs).

 

When the right leg of Alex was afflicted with polio at 11 months, his prospects seemed anything but normal.  Born in 1963 when polio had no vaccination yet, he lived a full and adventurous life. He used his left leg and tried and fully experienced about the world he lived in.  As orthopedically impaired with polio, he learned to do certain tasks around the house.

 

The difficulty in mobility meant that Alex had tendency to be a rebellious child and prone to tantrums.  He would throw things around and even blamed his parents for having polio. It is not also hard to imagine that Alex’s behaviour, born of frustration with the limitations he has, was also frustrating for his parents.

 

But according to Alex, “When I was a child, I was happy as other kids in the neighbourhood.  I was not even aware that I have a disability because I can do things like the other children do.”

 

However, when he reached secondary grade at De La Salle University, he had inferiority.  “I realized that I am different from the other students.”  Frustrations came in that he could not participate in school activities such as basketball, football and other sports that require stable lower extremities.  “I had that self-conviction that others with no disabilities are better than me.”

 

Out of depression, Alex engaged in vices until he reached third year college when he met a woman with whom he fell in love the first time.  “That was a changing day for me,” Alex stated.

 

The woman is Aida Pena, an insurance agent, who has no disability.  For Aida, sharing the mutual feelings with Alex, became more than a friend and a companion of Alex. Eventually, Aida became the loving wife of Alex. When he graduated in 1984 with Supply Management course, he was a happy married man with a healthy baby boy.

 

As a provider in the family, Alex worked at the Philippine Air Force as a civilian employee and as Avionics Technician from 1987-1995.   “The feeling of depression came back to me because I felt discriminated on job promotions proving again that I was no better than those with no disabilities.”

 

In 1996, Alex applied as Store Keeper at NVRC and got the job.  He was amazed what he saw at NVRC on the first day of his work:  blind people were playing piano, deaf people were dancing and wheelchair users were playing basketball!  He described that day as “the most important day of my life because I realized that persons with disabilities like me were given wide opportunities to excel in different endeavours.  I saw from my fellow PWDs the determination to do things other people could not imagine they can.  It was the day I said to myself, I found a second home!”

 

Alex started engaging in sports such as chess, weight lifting and basketball which he longed wanted to do but was never given the chance during his high school and college days.

 

 

In 2005, NVRC supported his participation in the National PARALYMPIC Game organized by the Philippine Sports Association for Differently-Abled (PhilSPADA) in chess and basketball. He excelled in basketball on wheels. Tracing his family tree, Alex is the brother of Melchor Teves, a former Sta. Lucia PBA Player.

Since he joined the annual National Paralympic Game, he was always included in the Mythical Five Selection of Men National Team that later gave him the opportunity to be one of the players sent to Malaysia in 2009, Kuwait in 2012 and in Myanmar in 2013, for the South East Asia Paragames competition.

Alex was promoted to Manpower Development Officer I and became a trainer in Consumer Electronics in 2000. Given his dedication, Alex is an inspiration to his trainees who are orthopedically impaired themselves.

 

As a man with deep personal religious convictions, Alex believes that “Everything happening in this world is in accordance with the will of the great Providence.  In this world we live in, injustice and poverty prevails wherein PWDs are considered second class citizens.  But disability is temporary because in the end when we reach our resting place, we are all equal.”###