Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) stands with the health workers, people living with HIV and AIDS, and health advocates in our call for free, comprehensive national public health services, adequate government funding and support, end stigma and discrimination and stop imperialist monopoly on medicines.
According to the Department of Health (DOH), HIV cases in the Philippines continue to rise with 3,410 new cases as of March this year. Ages ranged from less than one year old to 66 years old with a median of 28. There are 129,772 diagnosed cases of HIV from 1984 to March 2024, based on data from the HIV and AIDS and antiretroviral therapy Registry of the Philippines.
Despite the passage of Republic Act 11166 or the Philippine HIV and AIDS Policy Act in December 20, 2018, reports said that limited resources for HIV prevention, screening, treatment, and care, and pervasive stigmatization and discrimination of HIV patients continue to hinder the effective management of HIV-AIDS.
While the budget for the Philippine National AIDS Council will be increased from P43,916,000 (GAA, 2024) to P50,284,000 (NEP, 2025), the allotment for the Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases Program under the DOH budget will be reduced by P1,094,156,000, from P6,238,032,000 in 2024 to P5,143,876,000 for 2025 (NEP, 2025).
Instead of allotting an adequate budget, the Philippine government is dependent on foreign funding. Since 2020, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) through the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) contributed more than PHP2 billion (USD34.7 million) to support the Philippines’ HIV response, making it one of the largest bilateral donors (PNA, November 27, 2024).
The monopoly of big pharmaceutical corporations prevents people’s access to HIV- AIDS drugs. There is an ongoing global campaign to break the pharmaceutical corporation Gilead’s monopoly on Lenacapavir, an injectable HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Patent systems in various trade agreements in which the Philippines is a signatory make HIV medications, as well as other medicines, beyond the reach of the impoverished Filipinos.
HEAD will continue to work with the different sectors for free, comprehensive national public health services and thoroughgoing changes in the health care and political-economic system for better management of HIV-AIDS and all other pressing health concerns of the Filipino people.#
