It could be anybody

Gil has been commissioned by the Department of Health to make a documentary on the rising cases of HIV and AIDS in the Philippines. But his lead, Heidi, is reluctant to talk about the facts and circumstances surrounding her condition. In front of the camera, the widowed, AIDS-stricken Heidi only cries and curses at her predicament. As the deadline draws near, the pressure on Gil builds.

(The former) Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral comes to Gil’s rescue. She gives him two more potential subjects. Ivy is a call center agent—beautiful, educated, promising. Vanessa is a gay stand-up comedian. Gil tries to pry the stories out of these subjects.

Ivy insists that she never engages in risky sexual behavior—except for one night during her graduation party when she blacked out and did not know what could have happened.

Vanessa, on the other hand, continues to go out with any man who is willing. His parents know about his condition and gives him their full support and unconditional love. Vanessa lives his life as he would if he were not sick, infecting all others who become intimate with him.

Soon, Ivy learns what actually happened on that fateful night. A classmate seasoned their drinks with drugs. She went upstairs to sleep, but her classmate’s friend Rudy, a known drug user and dealer, followed her to the room. She remembers now. She looks for Rudy and learns he has died. Ivy despairs, realizing her inevitable ending, and backs out of the documentary deal.

Vanessa is tracked by the men who have had sex with him; they have realized that he had given them the virus. They beat him up and leave him for dead. His parents tell Gil that he cannot anymore continue with the documentary.

Heidi dies and leaves behind her son, who has been born with the virus.

Gil is desperate. The three subjects who have earlier agreed to talk to him and tell their stories to the public are now all gone. In the meantime, the deadline looms… and he, himself—a carefree, handsome young director who occasionally engages in risky sexual behavior—is HIV positive.

In the end, Heidi’s son agrees to go through with the interviews for the documentary. Ivy wants to continue telling her story. And while Vanessa has shied away, one more reluctant subject —Virgilio, or Gil himself—decides to participate in the documentary to tell his story.

Such is the plot of the movie HIV featuring actor and model Jake Cuenca, Maria Isabel Lopez, Iza Calzado and IC Mendoza. The advocacy film was put together by Exogain Productions and was directed by Neal Tan. Screenplay was by Wanggo Gallaga—a writer/ editor who had come out several years ago as HIV-positive himself. Gallaga is now an advocate of HIV/AIDS prevention through education.

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It would not be fair to evaluate the movie purely for its technical aspects. The message is far stronger and more urgent, especially in the light of present developments in the fight against HIV and AIDS. While the rest of the world has started containing the disease, here in the Philippines, the numbers are getting more alarming.

(This is also highlighted by the number of HIV-infected blood donated to the Health Department as communities deal with dengue.)

According to Philippine National AIDS Council (www.pnac.org.ph), there are now 7,235 cases of HIV infections in the country since the first case was recorded in 1984.

The rate of increase has been described as “exponential” by an official of the UNAIDS. Country coordinator Teresita Marie Bagasao said, in a report by Channel News Asia published in the PNAC site, that in 2007, the Philippines reported one new infection every other day. By end-2009 and towards 2010, the country reported one to two infections per day.

Right now, the country is seeing six new infections per day.

For the month of July 2011, 204 new HIV cases were recorded in the country, representing a 56 percent increase from the 131 recorded in July 2010. Ninety percent of these new cases were males, and 63 percent belonged to the 20-29-year-old age group. Ninety-five percent contracted the virus through unprotected sexual contact. Twenty percent were overseas Filipino workers. These numbers tell a compelling story about which segments of the population are at great risk, whether by choice or circumstance.

There is no known cure for the disease but anti-retroviral drugs—which must be taken every day without fail—enable people living with AIDS to continue leading normal lives. The problem is that the medicine costs anywhere between P1,500 to P2,000 a day (says PNAC executive director Ferchito Avelino in April last year, when I interviewed him for “Dealing with HIV and AIDS,” published April 5, 2010 in this space). More than 800 Filipinos living with AIDS get the medicine for free from international donors like The Global Fund. But the subsidy is not limitless. It’s a real long-term problem.

And while the government is hard pressed to find new sources of funding to support those already found positive for the virus, parallel efforts are also made to stem the rise of new infections.

Surprisingly, in this day and age, there remain many misconceptions about HIV and AIDS. Most dangerous perhaps is the thinking that “it cannot happen to me” or that it is a misfortune that only befalls the promiscuous. Like Gil or even Ivy in the story, many people believe that they are beyond its reach.

And even if they somehow mustered the courage to get themselves tested, they cannot bear the thought of coming out to a harsh, judgmental world.

HIV the movie is a work of fiction and played out by actors. HIV the virus is all too real. The threat is not going to go away if we pretend it is not there. In fact, the more we don’t talk about it, the bigger the menace it poses to all of us. –Adelle Chua, Manila Standard Today

adellechua@gmail.com