Vice President Jejomar Binay on Thursday asked government agencies and concerned groups to help raise HIV awareness among overseas Filipino workers (OFW) amid the growing number of them infected with the deadly disease.
“[Binay] is asking all concerned government agencies and OFW associations to work together to address the issue, with a concerted HIV-awareness drive as a priority,” Binay’s spokesman Joey Salgado told reporters in a text message.
Salgado said Binay, who is also the presidential adviser on OFW concerns, is “seriously concerned” with reports of an increasing number of overseas Filipinos infected with HIV.
Earlier, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said more than 25 percent of the recorded HIV-positive patients in the country were OFWs.
The TUCP said out of the 5,729 HIV-positive cases listed in the National AIDS Registry since 1984 up to the end of October this year, 1,501 cases are OFWs. The country’s first case of HIV was recorded in 1984.
The TUCP has likewise urged the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to invest in AIDS awareness activities for OFWs and their families and to include AIDS preventive education in its free seminars for departing workers. – Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMANews.TV
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