1,501 OFWs have HIV
Press Release
November
29, 2010
MANILA – A total of
1,501 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have tested HIV positive, and
they now comprise 26 percent of the 5,729 reported cases in the
National AIDS Registry as of end October, the Trade Union Congress of
the Philippines (TUCP) said Monday.
"One out of every four
Filipinos diagnosed HIV positive is an OFW," said TUCP
secretary-general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera.
"This is very
unfortunate, because if we look closely at the median age of HIV
positive OFWs, at 36 years old, they are the prime of their lives and
productivity," said Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee
on labor, employment and human resources development.
He said 96 percent of
the HIV positive OFWs were infected through sexual contact.
"This underscores the
need for government to aggressively encourage safe sex through the use
of male and female condoms," the former senator said.
"OFWs are particularly
vulnerable to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases because they
are exposed to foreign cultures that tend to abet high-risk behavior,
including casual sex," he said.
Herrera said Filipino
sailors are exceptionally susceptible, after spending lengthy periods
at sea. "Sailors are often deluged by commercial sex workers at their
foreign ports of call, and they have the money to pay for the
services," he pointed out. TUCP's member federations include the
Philippine Seafarers' Union.
Of the HIV positive
OFWs, Herrera said 75 percent or 1,127 are male.
Herrera urged the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to include AIDS
preventive education in the free seminars for departing workers.
He likewise prodded
the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to invest in
activities that raise AIDS awareness among OFWs and their families
here.
In the local labor
front, Herrera said Congress should mandate the inclusion of AIDS
preventive education in all bargaining contracts between management
and union.
TUCP earlier backed
President Benigno Aquino III's pro-choice family planning policy,
calling it "a courageous demonstration of political leadership," amid
strong resistance from Catholic Church officials.
"We are absolutely
behind the President's decision (for government) to provide condoms
and other modern contraceptives to couples who would prefer to limit
their number of children and avoid unplanned pregnancies," Herrera
said.
He described the
President's policy as "a fair and sensible approach" to human
development and population management.
TUCP is also pushing
for the inclusion of family planning and reproductive health clinics
and services at the workplace in every bargaining contract between
union and management.