NCDA Calls Out Starbucks For Tagging Customers' Cups With Disability

(SPOT.ph) The use of PWD (Persons with Disability) cards in the Philippines is a kind of constant elephant in the room, with incidents ranging from restaurant owners calling out the use of fake PWD cards to customers being interrogated by restaurant staff about their ID's authenticity. Due to the sensitivity of the topic and the high stakes on both sides, interactions where these cards are involved can quickly go viral; recently, one such Facebook post has garnered enough traction to merit a statement from the National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA).

On July 21, 2025, Facebook user Marivic Cruz posted a photo of her and her husband's orders from Starbucks Festival Mall in Muntinlupa City. The cups, which Starbucks employees usually label with the customer's name, were both labelled "Speech," and before each cup Cruz neatly laid their respective PWD cards—which both clearly bore the user's name, Marivic, and her husband's, Daniel.

According to Cruz, her husband, who had a speech and language impairment, was the one who ordered the drinks. "When he came back to our table, nag iba yung aura nya. Then he showed me the name written on his cup," Cruz writes. On the cups were written "Speech," presumably after the type of disability on the husband's PWD card. 

Cruz then adds an update, explaining that the manager approached her and her husband and apologized on the employee's behalf. However, the damage has been done, as Cruz expresses, "But still, part of us—especially my husband—was humiliated by what happened. He rarely approaches people, and now it seems like he’s starting to feel traumatized even just by ordering at other restaurants. Knowing that I also have a social disability, this is just too much."

On July 22, 2025, just a day after Cruz's Facebook post, the National Council on Disabiliy Affairs (NCDA) released a statement condemning the "tagging" of Cruz' and her husband's cups with their disabilities as "insensitive and discriminatory, constituting a violation of Republic Acts (RA) 7277 and (9442), also known as the Magna Carta for Persons with Disabilities."

"We have reached out to Mr. & Mrs. Cruz to sincerely apologize for this incident and for the distress it caused them. Our investigation has confirmed that when our employee was shown the customer’s ID card, to access a discount for disabled customers, he mistook the disability listed as being the customer’s name. We fully acknowledge our mistake and will reinforce with our teams the values and service standards that we expect. This will include further enhancing the training which we provide aimed at fostering a strong culture of inclusion and treating everyone in our stores with dignity, respect, and care."

As of this writing, Cruz's post has garnered some 121,000 reactions, over 5,000 comments, and over 32,000 shares. Her experience has largely garnered sympathy from netizens who have commented on the original post, and conversely Starbucks Festival Mall has earned their ire. While many have called out Starbucks Philippines, some have even advised Cruz to sue:

And while a few have suggested that the employee could have made an honest mistake, citing a lack of attention due to the busy nature of the job:

Others are certain that the tagging of the cups with the customers' disability was an intentionally malicious act:

When the orders have been served, insult has been added to injury, and all's been said and done—now what?