FOLLOWING the arrest of 11 men in a Manila business district hotel room on Tuesday on suspicion of using illegal drugs, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency officers unlawfully disclosed that one of the suspects was HIV positive, Carlos Conde, researcher, Asia Division of Human Rights Watch, said Thursday.
“That set off a media frenzy, with advocates of gay rights and the rights of people living with HIV lambasting the drug agency for an appalling breach of privacy in violation of the country’s AIDS law,” said Conde.
As World AIDS Day approached today, the incident is a sad reminder of how much more the Philippines needs to do to ensure the rights of people living with HIV are respected and upheld.
HIV rights advocates point out that the HIV disclosure highlights continuing discrimination and stigmatization of people with HIV in the Philippines, Conde said.
Conde said the issue takes on more urgency, given the Philippines has the fastest-growing HIV epidemic in the Asia-Pacific region, with new HIV cases per year jumping from 4,300 to 10,000 between 2010 and 2016.
Most new infections—up to 83 percent—are among men and transgender women who have sex with men.
In August, the government declared the epidemic a “national emergency.”
“In this context, discrimination and stigma against people living with HIV serve as a double-whammy,” said Conde. Bill Casas
Conde said this was especially tragic because, as it is, the Philippine government had failed to implement proven prevention measures in responding to the HIV crisis.
It still does not have a national condom promotion strategy. Safer sex education in schools is practically nonexistent.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s abusive “war on drugs” has pushed injecting drug users underground, a group especially at high risk of contracting HIV.
He said, apart from violating privacy laws, the PDEA agents’ actions might stigmatize people living with HIV and men who had sex with men, threatening to put them on Duterte’s list of those, “you cannot rehabilitate,” used to justify his drug war.
Conde said this set back the fight against HIV in the Philippines.