HIV & AIDS Epidemic in Philippines fed by Rape/Incest



Your government has undertaken to uphold, respect, protect, fulfill, and promote human rights and dignity as the cornerstones of an effective response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic.

Your part is to Test & Treat HIV

  • HiV is no longer a death sentence if you test and treat.
  • HIV is not your fault.
  • HIV must be fought. We must fight and win this one!

A Philippines HIV Epidemic is Getting Needed Attention

HIV Must be prevented.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) & Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)

Manila, Republic of the Philippines – Sexually transmitted diseases like HIV are transmitted by crime to a very large extent in the Philippines. The crimes are rape and incest.

  • Children are becoming HIV Positive because of these crimes.
  • Child victims of rapists spread the disease to other rapists who rape them.
  • Men and women are becoming HIV Positive because of crime.
  • A dramatically increasing number of members of the LGBTQ2 communities are infected and dying from HIV/AIDS. Consenting sexual relations tend to be protected but rape of LGBTQ2 community members is far too common.

HIV

Among the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and two-spirit communities (LGBTQ2)  in the Philippines, more needs to be done to provide medical outreach and education on risk patterns and prevention of the transmission of communicable diseases. HIV, Aids and Hepatitis probably top the list of preventable sexualy transmitted diseases.

According to RINJ regional coordinator Sharon Santiago, the RINJ Foundation is distributing “all that we can get” in the way of a medicine or course of action used to prevent disease and appropriate medications. Because of Philippines policies on birth control there are certain words we are not allowed to use.

RINJ Big Message:HIV in The Philippines


Get Tested! Test and Treat You can also seek pre-exposure Prophylaxis.


In the Philippines tests can take a while. People fear this testing because of their guilt and shame. That’s wrong. It’s not your fault. But don’t suffer stress and anxiety, if that is your case, do a self test. Do self-tests any time you believe you had a high risk incident But please start now avoiding such high risk incidents. It’s not worth the anxiety and in the worst cases, not worth getting sick.

Testing with full private results can take 20 minutes if you use a home testing method. Watch the video and chill. This could be the answer to many concerns.

Test and Treat means that if you test positive, get a confirming test done and if positive, start treatment immediately. Since July of 2019, the treatment of HIV is easier, more effective and with fewer side effects. Your goal is to suppress the HIV virus to undetectable levels. Then you never get AIDS; will not be contagious; you will be healthier, and you will be ready for a curative solution when available. DOn’t let this become AIDS. Test and Treat .

Since 2015 the World Health Organization has been warning the Philippines that the country has the most rapidly escalating HIV epidemic in the world.

RINJ estimates that of known cases, there are 1000 new cases of HIV per month but we fear that the real number is impossible to determine because people are not being tested,” adds Santiago.

It is very important that members of the LGBTQ2 communities get themselves tested and that can be via self-testing, a Civil Society NGO, a local Barangay medical unit or local hospital.”

Statistics released by the Philippines Department of Health (DOH) show an alarming percentage of LGBTQ2 communities are impacted by HIV. Among unknown (untested) cases, this is a possible death sentence. If tested and treated, HIV can be beaten.

Good news: The status of current pharmacological solutions is so good that many patients are taking a single pill per day and suppressing the virus to the point of being undetectable in the blood. This means that the patient is not contagious and is healthy insofar as their HIV infection is concerned. Basically that means that the Test & Treat regime results in HIV becoming a chronic illness that can be controlled. Before long, it is quite a certainty that a cure can easily roust out the hiding HIV virus microbes and end their stay in the patient’s body. Current research has yielded a promising indication of that happening, so Test and Treat.

Philippine HIV and AIDS Policy Act

(Download Philippine-HIV-and-AIDS-Policy-Act-Substitute-Bill-Approved-on-SECOND-READING)

The recent piece of legislature is called, “Philippine HIV and AIDS Policy Act”. It is a welcome piece of legislation.

The preamble of the Act sets out that Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) are public health concerns that have wide-ranging social, political, and economic repercussions.

“Responding to the HIV and AIDS epidemic is therefore imbued with public interest.

“The State shall uphold, respect, protect, fulfill, and promote human rights and dignity as the cornerstones of an effective response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic.

“The State shall guarantee the confidentiality, anonymity and voluntary nature of HIV testing; ensure the provision of non- discriminatory HIV and AIDS services; and, develop redress mechanisms for persons living with HIV to safeguard their civil, political, economic and social rights.

“The State shall recognize the vital role of affected individuals in propagating correct information and learning messages about HIV and AIDS and shall utilize their experience to educate the public about the disease.

The bill says the Republic of the Philippines shall:

  • establish policies and programs to prevent the spread of HIV and deliver
    treatment, care, and support services to Filipinos living with HIV in accordance with evidence-based strategies and approaches that uphold the principles of human rights, gender-responsiveness, and age-appropriateness, including meaningful participation of communities affected by the epidemic;
  • adopt a multi-sectoral approach in responding to the HIV epidemic by ensuring that the whole of government, civil society organizations, and persons living with HIV are at the center of the process;
  • ensure access to HIV and AIDS-related services by eliminating the climate of stigma and discrimination that surrounds the epidemic and the people directly and indirectly affected by it; and
  • positively address and seek to eradicate conditions that aggravate the spread of HIV infection.

 


This is a good start but looks like political mumbo jumbo until real humanitarian action is taken,” says RINJ’s Santiago. Do your part which is Test and Treat .

Civil society can help by working with government and their message is “Test and Treat”. Get rid of the idea that HIV is a death sentence. Protect yourself always. If you have a high-risk incident, Test and Treat. Spread the word. Test&Treat.


PH Justice System gets an “F” From The RINJ Foundation


The RINJ Foundation adduces to the Philippines legislation that the state must seek to eradicate the epidemic of rape and incest in the Philippines.

No amount of rhetoric will fix this problem. If a woman or child comes to court every month for two years testifying that she was raped. She is telling the truth. We have listened to Philippines Judges say “not enough evidence to convict”. Well, rape is often a two person situation. A woman comes to court and listens to the prosecutor and dozens of men snickering and commenting in whispers as she gives her testimony and then in every appearance thereafter tolerates their gaze and ridicule, she is telling the truth.

Your honour, no women goes through this hell of testifying about her own rape if it is not true. 

The Philippines justice system is completely 100% inept in prosecuting rapists and has no concept on how to repair this problem. Numerous cases launched by RINJ in several provinces are being tracked and closely recorded and documented. The data is shocking. The system is all about misogyny. among the people interviewed around courtrooms, many of them have an event in their history they would not want anyone to know about. Rape and incest is so common in the Philippines that all around the court house and inside the courtroom are men who can look at the accused and say silently to themselves, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

The worst cases of rape and incest are crimes committed by persons in authority like Barangay Captains and by police officers, Mayors, counselors and others who are policy and opinion setters of the so-called ruling class. The vast majority of cases are committed against what most of the world describes as a minor child. In the Philippines the age of consent is 12, lowest in the world.

Drift, delay, incompetence and disinterest sum up the treatment of rape cases by a patriarchal system that is guilty of being a significant contributor to the crime.

In short, police, prosecutors and judges are reticent to prosecute rapists because in their role of daily pursuit of power and control over communities comprising their jurisdictions, they too are probably rapists in the majority. We adduce this based on anecdotal and first hand experiences and knowledge plus a survey conducted in 2012 that indicated most Filipino males believed that rape should not constitute a crime. That survey also indicated that most respondents had on at least one occasion had been the initiator of non-consenting sex.


Judiciary So Corrupt the PH Cops Prefer to Kill Drug Criminals than to try and Prosecute but alas no interest in Rapists

The Law Enforcement & Justice Systems of the Philippines are so ineffectual, and buying a verdict is so easy, that the current administration prefers to kill drug dealers in the street lieu of trying to prosecute within the failed judiciary.

  1. Women complain in the Philippines that if they complain to police about a rape, they are likely to be raped again at the police station.
  2. Families say that if the police are looking for a drug suspect and can’t find that person they will take away and rape a sister, child, mother or other person close to the subject of their investigation. And the victims are often male as well as female.
  3. Over 10 million women have worked outside of the country as domestic helpers while their children were raped at home and they themselves were raped or sexually abused abroad.

RINJ estimates based on straw polls of help desk callers and other sources suggest that five out of ten females are sexually assaulted in the Philippines and that a growing number of males are victims of this crime, especially children.

It is also feared that among members of the gay community, unreported rape statistics are skyrocketing upwards.

Rape is all about power and control.

Rape is all about power and control. In the Philippines over 60 million people have lost power and control of their own lives. The war between the elite and the poor includes rape as a weapon of oppression.

If Philippines legislators are serious about eradicating HIV, they can make a huge dent by eradicating impunity for rapists. – The RINJ Foundation

 


Learn About HIV to help prevent infection.

  • HIV is spread only in certain body fluids from a person infected with HIV. These fluids are blood, semen, pre-seminal fluids, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, and breast milk.
  • HIV is spread mainly by having sex or sharing injection drug equipment, such as needles, with someone who has HIV.
  • To reduce your risk of HIV infection, use protective sheaths correctly every time you have vaginal, oral, or anal sex.
  • Don’t inject drugs.
  • If you don’t have HIV but are at high risk of becoming infected with HIV, talk to your health care provider about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). PrEP involves taking a specific HIV medicine every day to reduce the risk of HIV infection.
  • Avoid promiscuity. Loyal partners build better, safer families and communities.

 

HIV is transmitted (spread) only in certain body fluids from a person infected with HIV:

  • Blood
  • Semen
  • Pre-seminal fluids
  • Rectal fluids
  • Vaginal fluids
  • Breast milk

HIV transmission is only possible if these fluids come in contact with a mucous membrane or damaged tissue or are directly injected into the bloodstream (from a needle or syringe). Mucous membranes are found inside the rectum, the vagina, the opening of the penis, and the mouth.

 

Warning: HIV can also spread from an HIV-infected woman to her child during pregnancy, childbirth (also called labor and delivery), or breastfeeding. This spread of HIV is called mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

HIV in the Philippines


Prevent Mother to Child Transmission at Birth


Take action now if you are pregnant. Get tested. Save your baby.

  • Mother-to-child transmission of HIV is the spread of HIV from a woman with HIV to her child during pregnancy, childbirth (also called labor and delivery), or breastfeeding (through breast milk).
  • Pregnant women with HIV must receive HIV medicines during pregnancy and childbirth to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In some situations, a woman with HIV may have a scheduled cesarean delivery (sometimes called a C-section) to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV during delivery.
  • Babies born to women with HIV should receive HIV medicines for 4 to 6 weeks after birth. The HIV medicines reduce the risk of infection from any HIV that may have entered a baby’s body during childbirth.
  • Because HIV can be transmitted in breast milk, women with HIV should not breastfeed their babies. Baby formula is a safer alternative.
  • If a woman takes HIV medicines during pregnancy and childbirth and her baby receives HIV medicines for 4 to 6 weeks after birth, the risk of transmitting HIV can be lowered to 2% or less.

The RINJ Foundation FIght Against HIV AIDS