Senate to host global meet on AIDS

The Philippine Senate will host the first global meeting on HIV/AIDS for parliamentarians in a three-day forum next week, wherein representatives from about 50 countries are expected to attend.

Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. will lead the three-day seminar at the Manila Hotel, aimed at collaborating efforts by various legislators from all over the globe against the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

“This is the first event of its kind that will inaugurate an annual series of parliamentary meetings on HIV/AIDS. It will also be used to disseminate the outcome of the work of the IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union) advisory group and launch its new handbook on HIV/AIDS,” Villar said in a press conference.

Expected to attend the event are Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, IPU secretary general Anders Johnsson, Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) deputy executive director Michel Sibide, and a person living with HIV/AIDS.

Leadership is the overall theme of the meeting that includes a panel discussion on the stigma and discrimination by parliamentarians; affordability of drugs; what can parliaments do for vulnerable groups; legalization and criminalization of issues; budgeting and powers of oversight to tailor government budget more closely to HIV/AIDS needs; resource mobilization (international and national) and adoption.

One of the main objectives of the forum is to organize the First Global Parliamentary Meeting on HIV/AIDS and make the Philippine Senate as the parliament that initiated and inaugurated an annual series of worldwide parliamentary meetings on HIV/AIDS.

Another objective is also to bring the Philippines to the center of worldwide attention during the event and to celebrate the Senate’s image as a concerned parliament that cares about the 2,818 people living with HIV/AIDS in the Philippines and some 39.5-million affected worldwide.   – Christina Mendez