Digging up my office desk and reflecting on our history of HIV work, the legendary international best practice passage of National AIDS Law (Republic Act 8504) in 1998 did not happen without a story behind it. The passage was based on reasons.
Being engaged in estimations and projections, I had access to the reports and methods used around that time.
On the first few years of his presidency, President Fidel Ramos was warned that by year 2000, around 100,000 Filipinos will have HIV if his administration will not do something. This was a red flag at the time when less than 100 cases were being reported per year (only 6 cases a month).
The stars aligned on those moments, the AIDS activism was alive, government and civil society partners were on top of things, the media covered spectacular stories of Dolzura Cortes and Sarah Jane Salazar, AIDS as a health issue was on all-time high in the awareness of the public.
The result, the world praised the Philippines for passing a landmark national policy in 1998.
NEXT - No Cases. Where did it go?
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HIV Around me | AIDS Work | Did we forsesee this? | Where did we fail? | The legendary AIDS Law | No Cases. Where did it go? | Confused | Wildfire | We will bounce back | Papang, thank you, I know my HIV status
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