LAPULAPU CITY – Some 15 Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) who are members of the Philippine Accessible Disability Service (PADS) Dragon Boat Racing Team, joined this year’s Dive and Clean-Up Club (DCC) “NO BARRIER 4” event, a discovery scuba and clean-up dive for PWDs held on January 24 at Scotty’s Action Sports Network in Shangri-la Mactan, Cebu.
There were 60 participants at the NO BARRIER 4 event composed of partners, sponsors and volunteers, including PWDs that assembled as early as 7:00 AM on January 24 to scuba dive and help clean the oceans around the Mactan Seas. Some 30 licensed divers from DCC came together to facilitate the skills training in the water for the Discover Scuba Dive (DSD) program, to assist the training and to document the NO BARRIER 4 event.
Ludy Vilma Demecillo, who founded the Dive and Clean-up Clu in 2025, has partnered with PADS founder John Paul Maunes since 2022 for the discovery scuba dive for the PWDs. DCC advocates for cleaner seas and assists groups in scuba diving training with the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) which is responsible of sending the e-learning to the participants consisting of dive scenarios for them to work through and some medical questionnaire to fill out.
“We have been doing the NO BARRIER discovery dive for PWDs since 2023 and for several years, and over time more than 100 PADS members with disabilities have gained the confidence to participate in this activity,” said Jp Ecarma Maunes, Founder of PADS.
Maunes shared that PADS is involved in this project as a statement as much as an activity. Through adaptive scuba diving and the dive and clean initiative, the group challenges the long-standing belief that underwater activities are only for able-bodied individuals.
PADS group creates opportunities for persons with disabilities to safely experience scuba diving, take active roles underwater, and be seen—not as limitations—but as capable divers and contributors. “Our involvement is about changing perceptions and proving that disability does not mean inability,” Maunes stated.
He explained that each dive includes adaptive divers alongside trained buddies and volunteers, working as one team. Every new participant represents a breakthrough—not just in skill, but in mindset—because choosing to dive is already an act of courage in a world that often tells people with disabilities what they cannot do.
The NO BARRIER adaptive scuba diving event for the PADS members is deeply transformative. “Underwater, gravity disappears, and so do many of the barriers they face on land. It gives persons with disabilities a rare sense of freedom, independence, and control over their own bodies. Emotionally, it builds confidence and pride—because they are doing something society often says is impossible,” Maunes noted.
The dive and cleaning up the oceans go even further, Maunes added that it shows that his members are not just participating in sports, but giving back and protecting the environment. “It breaks stereotypes in a powerful way that people with disabilities are not objects of care, but agents of change.”
Maunes said that PADS’ vision is always to
challenge norms, break barriers, and prove that in adaptive sports, especially
in scuba diving, anything is possible when people are given access, trust, and
opportunity. “Breaking barriers, one dive at a time, for a better tomorrow!”
Maunes concluded. (Photos: DCC/Ludy Demecillo/PADS)
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