PRESIDENT Duterte has signed into law the bill seeking to strengthen government’s measures to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country, Malacañang announced on Wednesday.
HIV/AIDS refers to human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
In a statement, Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo said the measure, which was signed by the President last December 20, also provides for the establishment of policies and programs to ensure delivery of proper treatment, care and support services to Filipinos living with HIV. This will be in accordance with “evidence-based strategies and approaches, which are in tune with key principles of human rights, gender equality and meaningful participation of communities.
“We consider its enactment and signing timely and relevant on account of the report of the Department of Health disclosing that our country has the highest percentage relative to the the increase of new HIV cases in the Asia-Pacific region from 2010 to 2016,” Panelo said on Wednesday.
“We laud our lawmakers, including various stakeholders who immensely contributed to the passage of an updated legal framework addressing HIV and AIDS. This piece of landmark legislation will significantly reduce the stigma of people living with HIV or AIDS.”
The Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the bicameral conference committee report on the bill in October.
In the same month, the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed concern over the rising incidence of HIV in the country as other countries in the Western Pacific region experienced a decline in HIV cases.
WHO Philippines Representative Gundo Aurel Weiler noted that HIV prevalence has increased by 140 percent in the last six to eight years, while other countries in the region and in the world saw a 20-percent decline in HIV cases.
Weiler said before that there were 80,000 Filipinos living with HIV, and half of whom are not aware that they have been infected.