Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Finale, as of 2014
Memory Served: 24 October 2014, Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria, Quezon City
As it would turn out, speaking about human rights before the delegates of the 13th Philippine National Convention on HIV and AIDS was to be my last engagement with the country's response to the HIV epidemic. After this, I will be asked to report to the Office of the Secretary to do correspondence writing and assist in other administrative matters. By 2016, I will find myself working on health facility planning. More than a decade of working in HIV prevention work, it felt like a lifetime ago.
Still, I did my own mental happy dance when finally the bill strengthening the HIV and AIDS law passed (and now awaiting for the President's signature). Even though, technically then, I was assigned to work on improving Republic Act 8504's implementing rules and regulations (the prevailing mandate), and was prohibited from engaging in any legislative advocacy work. So let this be my muted shout out, in spirit, joining the celebration in welcoming a stronger mandate for HIV and AIDS -- to my former co-workers from the Philippine National AIDS Council, the many PLHIV, MSM and TG advocates, development partners, and the rest of civil society.
[This post is antedated: 20181107]
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