HIV/AIDS Situation in the Philippines

TOGETHER TO GET THERE!

I.HIV/AIDS Situation in the Philippines

Available evidence in the Philippines describes the HIV/AIDS situation in the country as a low infection/slow progression epidemic. The level of prevalence among those presumed to be most vulnerable is considered low and the current rate of growth in the number of HIV/AIDS cases is considered slow. While responses to the epidemic have come too late in other countries to prevent a rapid explosion of infections , in the Philippines, the response has preceded any rapid increase in prevalence.

The continued low/slow pace of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is in part due to the accomplishments of the national effort and we are proud to share this success with all our partners supporting prevention activities, contributing to developing capacities and institutional systems and responses necessary to continue to prevent a rapid increase in HIV/AIDS infections.

While the low/slow prevalence is good news for the country, continued vigilance and prevention is still necessary if the Philippines is to avoid a rapid acceleration of the epidemic. This situation, therefore, does not alter the urgency and imperative for national action as the known and suspected levels and extent of risk behaviors are such that there is a potential for the country to suffer a more serious epidemic than available data indicate. While prevalence continues to remain at very low levels even among high-risk groups, high-risk behaviors among sex workers, male clients, men who have sex with men and injecting drug users create the potential for a rapid increase in HIV/AIDS infections. The risk of rapid acceleration remains quite real, requiring continued and sustained efforts for HIV/AIDS prevention and control.

Indeed in the Philippines, the greater challenge now is keeping the epidemic at its current low/slow level. This demands that the country’s responses should neither be low nor slow. Fortunately, the national response was neither low or slow.

II. The National Response

Republic Act 8504 (AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998)

Thanks to the early recognition of the epidemic as this allowed the government to exercise leadership early. Along with civil society partners, it clearly articulated its intentions, the centerpiece of the response being the enactment of the Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998. After 5 years of tedious work, consultations, exhaustive advocacy and lobbying efforts, the Philippines finally passed this comprehensive national law on HIV/AIDS prevention which mandated measures on education and information, adoption of safe practices and behaviors, conduct of testing, screening and counseling and the provision of health services. This law reaffirmed the human rights of persons infected and affected by HIV/AIDS with provisions protecting the confidentiality and prohibiting discriminatory acts and policies.

Moreover, it created the Philippine National AIDS Council, the country’s highest policy making, coordinating and directing body on HIV/AIDS. The council includes 13 national agencies, two organizations representing local governments, representatives from the two houses of Congress, and 9 non-government organizations and professional associations, including an organization of people living with HIV/AIDS.

Mobilization of Strategic Sectoral Network

To date, the Philippine National AIDS Council had mobilized various organizational networks and operational channels for its activities. The convening power of PNAC has successfully brought together government agencies and strategic civil society partners to collaborate to advance the national agenda of curtailing the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Philippines. It has engaged the active involvement of excellent individuals and organizations for an expanded national response.

The pioneering work and cutting edge activities of the NGO s had provided valuable lessons and insights that guided the formulation of policies and the conceptualization intervention programs for government agencies. NGOs were recognized for their comparative advantage in specific functions like research, surveillance, reaching hard to reach groups, adolescent sexuality education and community based care.

These roles had been further enhanced with the recognition that NGOs can perform functions that are difficult for government agencies to do, like working with people in the periphery of the law, circulating among clients at night and in places that are not socially approved, and implementing interventions despite counter-pressures by politically influential and or religious groups and their allied organizations.

NGO initiatives, however, are also limited either because there are of work is confined to a defined community and or is constrained by available human or financial resources. PNAC therefore provided the mechanism to amplify their efforts by linking them with appropriate government agency which has the potential to multiply these efforts on nationwide scale. Furthermore, NGO activities can be mainstreamed into regular programming of the relevant government agency which increases the likelihood of such initiatives to be sustainable as NGO work are often subsidized by time bound project funding.

PNAC also had established linkages with various Local AIDS Council which had been organized in major cities across the country. These councils were born following the increased recognition of the need for multi-sectoral responses at the local level. In several localities, local AIDS councils have been established by local legislation partly in response to the passage of the AIDS Law and partly in response to advocacy by the PNAC.

Evolving Multi-Ministerial Strategy

The heart of an expanded national response is anchored by the line agencies which comprise the core of government instrumentalities and functions. Commitments at the highest political level are translated by key government institutions into operational policies and strategies. Specific mandates for the relevant government agencies are well defined under RA 8504 and concrete course of actions are now evident, keeping in consonance with the spirit of the AIDS Law.

Department of Interior and Local Governments

The PNAC worked through the networks of the DILG as well as the leagues of local governments in order to reach and mobilize the thousands of provincial, city and municipal governments all over the country.

To meet its mandate under the law, DILG issued Memorandum Circular No. 94-233 in 1999 directing all local government executives to implement HIV/AIDS education and community based services. After the devolution of government units are currently operating as autonomous units. With the increased recognition of the vital importance of local responses, this order therefore attempted to mobilize responses from local governments in a nationwide scale.

With the assistance of PNAC, key lessons learned and experiences from the work of pioneering LGUs had been distilled into the guidebook “Initiating Local Responses to HIV/AIDS.