MindanaoToday.com | HIV-AIDS advocacy shifts to narratives
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
True to the global theme of this year’s World AIDS Day, “Let Communities Lead,” organizations of persons living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV) in Northern Mindanao were at the forefront in simultaneous events on Friday, December 1, in the region’s key cities.
Those who, through time, managed to tame the stigma and brushed aside forms of discrimination were most-awaited speakers. Under names of choice and without the need to reveal where they came come from to keep their identities confidential, they shared their narratives openly.
In Cagayan de Oro, about 150 participants to the City AIDS Council-sponsored gathering of health advocates to “celebrate” WAD 2023 waited an hour past noon on Friday at the Green Lane, Limketkai Center, for a testimony from a PLHIV. About half of them nursing students from the city’s leading educational institutions.
They have heard insightful messages and presentations from Department of Health Assistant Regional Director for Northern Mindanao David Mendoza, City Councilor Maria Lourdes Gaane who co-chairs the Cagayan de Oro’s CAC, City Health Office’s Epidemiologist Joselito Retuya Jr. and office-in-charge Claire Paglinawan.
Statistical information such as the total number of PLHIV in Northern Mindanao disaggregated by province and city, by age group classifications, and by modes of transmission and the like, were no longer mentioned as in the past WAD events. They went beyond numbers.
Finally, a 41-year-old male PLHIV took the centerstage who was introduced as Loreto C. Loreto, a member of the Northern Mindanao AIDS Advocates (NorMAA) group. He said it took him almost 10 years to draw the courage to open up.
It was Loreto’s second time to share his narrative, of having gone through rejections and embarrassing situations. Since then, he has been urging all those who have engaged in unprotected sex to avail of prophylaxis, get screened and tested and avail of treatment, if reactive.
In Iligan City, the WAD activity was held at the City Public Plaza along Mariano Badelles Street where over 500 individuals waited for a male speaker from NorMAA Iligan Chapter after health and city government officials had spoken. Instead, a woman PLHIV showed to them she had the balls to tell her ordeal. An alias was used to introduced her before she spoke.
Ace Lubang, vice-chairperson of the Iligan-Lanao Action for Wellness (ILAW) Shared Community, said the plan was to have a testimony from a NorMAA Iligan Chapter member as part of their “Pagsaysay Dos” (Narrative 2). This was held at the Marawi State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) campus.
Over the past 10 years, HIV advocacies in Northern Mindanao had shifted to personal accounts from numbers of persons tested for the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)-causing virus. Organizers of WAD events used to invite those from other places in the country to share their stories. Lately, those who share narratives have been from within the region.
The masters of ceremony of events in two highly-urbanized cities in Northern Mindanao would repeatedly remind the audience to refrain from taking photos of PLHIV that may unduly lead to their identities. Their personal identities are protected under Republic Act N. 11166, the Philippine HIV and AIDS Act of 2018.
Both WAD 2023 events in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan kicked off with motorcades, followed by film showings, and messages from the city governments and their health offices, as well as from DOH Northern Mindanao.
City Councilor Kenneth John Sacala, who represented the 79-member Cagayan de Oro City Sangguniang Kabataan Federation in that event, read Mayor Rolando Uy’s message that was anchored on the preventive aspect of HIV-AIDS campaign. It also assured of funding to achieve a long-term goal of ending its threat to public health by 2030.
But most of the seats for SK chairpersons at the WAD 2023 venue were vacant.
Among 17 regions, Northern Mindanao ranks seventh with 56 cases out of the 1,256 cases of HIV detections, as reported by the DOH through its HIV/AIDS & ART Registry of the Philippines (HARP) Report in May this year. The National Capital Region topped with 290 HIV confirmed infections that month.
On September 22, the DOH Epidemiology announced the HARP Report shall be issued every quarter starting in June 2023, but such has not been released as of this posting. (30)
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