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H
e was diagnosed seven years ago, but it was only this April that Filipino stage and screen actor Adrian Lindayag found enough courage to tell people outside of his family that he is a person living with the human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV).
The first Filipino celebrity acting across theater, film, and television to reveal himself in public as such, Lindayag played “Angel” in the Philippine revival of the rock opera “Rent,” in which eight characters navigate a world full of prejudice and intolerance against persons with HIV and AIDS. The musical’s theme resonated profoundly with Lindayag, having “experienced first-hand” the stigma and discrimination attached to HIV and AIDS.
“I witnessed incidents and heard many stories,” he said as well. This was in fact among the reasons why he decided to finally disclose that he is a PLHIV at the “Rent” press conference in Manila.
“I don’t think we talk about stigma enough as a society,” Lindayag told Asia Democracy Chronicles (ADC) in a later interview. “It is put aside as a topic. I don’t think our teachers and the educational system are equipped to teach all these intersecting issues.”
That’s because some of those issues are those that Filipinos do not like discussing in public – such as sex, and especially same-sex intercourse. In the Philippines, sex remains as the main mode of transmission of HIV. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (U.N. AIDS) has also said that notable increases in the country’s HIV cases between 2010 and 2020 were among transgendered women and men who have sex with men (MSM). In 2020, more than 90 percent of new infections were among MSM.
According to U.N. AIDS, the Philippines has the fastest-growing HIV epidemic in the Asia Pacific region, with a 237 percent increase in yearly new infections from 2010 to 2020, and with a rise in AIDS-related deaths at 315 percent in the same period.
Last March, the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) reported that on average, 55 individuals are diagnosed with HIV in the country every day. This is the highest daily transmission rate in the world, it said.
U.N. AIDS Deputy Executive Director Christine Stegling, who visited the Philippines last June, has asked the Philippine government to expand HIV services, strengthen community-led prevention, address stigma and discrimination, and develop a sustainability plan.
In a statement issued during her visit, and which was published later by local media, Stegling, who is also U.N. Assistant Secretary General, pointed out that almost half of the country’s new HIV infections are in youth between ages 15 and 24. “This calls for increased financing for programs to address the powder keg combination of low HIV knowledge and early unprotected sex among young people,” she said.
“Every hour, there are three new HIV infections in the Philippines,” Stegling said. “Every day there are four AIDS-related deaths. Every single one of these is avoidable.”
Difficulty of disclosing HIV status
In the Philippines, however, a large part of the problem is that many PLHIVs find it hard to disclose their HIV status. By and large, Filipinos react badly to news that their partner, friend, or family member is HIV-positive. The situation is worse for PLHIVs who also have to admit to being in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) spectrum of diverse gender identities.
Dr. Louie Ocampo, U.N. AIDS Philippines country director, said that HIV-associated discrimination and stigma remains as the weightiest barrier for individuals to seek timely medical assistance for testing, treatment, counseling and support.
Stigma, he said, refers to the negative treatment by people against those they perceive as having reprehensible features or conditions, which splits society between people who are “normal” and those “not considered normal.”
Explained Ocampo: “This leads to discrimination, when people are deprived of their rights and unfairly treated due to other people’s harmful perceptions of their gender, sexual orientation, age and medical condition such as having HIV.”
“The stigma attached to HIV started because of its being highly contagious, and people who are at higher risk experience the most stigmatization, such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs and transgender persons,” he said.
Ocampo said that stigma can lead to people not considering themselves as vulnerable, and therefore do not get tested and may remain undiagnosed and untreated. Stigma also makes PLHIVs hide their condition and not seek medical help. These tendencies can cause further transmission and further drive the HIV epidemic in the country.
He welcomed Lindayag’s willingness to help reduce stigma to heighten HIV awareness and prevention.
“Humanizing the response is critical for the young generation to connect and relate with others,” said Ocampo. “Adrian can use his platform to influence the youth and learn from his HIV journey.”
Lindayag told ADC: “I wanted to free myself of shame and I knew that being an actor is a platform and having a platform is a privilege. I’m learning and sharing what I know, especially with young people.”
He is fortunate to have a supportive family. Just 22 years old when he learned he had HIV, Lindayag said that it was hard to hide his condition from his parents, who would accompany him to the hospital, where he incurred huge bills from blood procedures and tests.
“I needed my parents’ help so that I could help myself,” he said. “So that I can assure them that I’m taking care of myself.” According to Lindayag, overcoming the hurdle of coming out to his parents also taught his family about the importance of tolerance and understanding. That, in turn, inspired him to gain more knowledge about the infection and share what he has learned with other people.
Stigma stories
The Philippines is actually among the earliest countries to have an AIDS law, enacting one in 1998, and then amending it in 2018 to strengthen the policy on HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, including addressing discrimination and stigma.
Yet PLHIVs continue to experience discrimination and stigma, as confirmed by Lindayag, as well as by a 2019 report by the Demographic Research and Development Foundation Inc. and Pinoy Plus Advocacy Pilipinas, the first and oldest organization of PLHIVs in the Philippines.
People living with HIV in Asia, 2022
Researchers of the Philippine Stigma Index 2019 report gathered anecdotal data from 152 PLHIVs. Among their observations was that more respondents who had been living with HIV for 10 years or more had already revealed their status to their family or friends, or both, compared to those either newly diagnosed or have been PLHIV for less than 10 years.
This indicates that it takes some time before PLHIVs are able to tell someone else about their condition. Based on the respondents’ anecdotes, this is due to their fear of being discriminated against and stigmatized.
One male respondent who had a bad experience after disclosure recounted in the report, “My partner left me and was disgusted with me; I was also thrown out of the place we were staying. To this day, we don’t have communication because she/he is still avoiding me.”
A male employee was forced to tell his supervisor the reason he was taking a day off. Otherwise, he would not be allowed to be absent.
The report quoted the employee as saying, “After I disclosed that I was taking a day off to get my medicines, I was allowed to go on leave not knowing that the next day, everyone in the office already knew about my status, and they petitioned that I should be dismissed from work. After that, I was forced by the company to resign.”
Another respondent said, “My family doesn’t want me to hold or carry my nephew. They don’t want me to cook; my food is separated as well as my utensils. They don’t want to use my blanket and pillow.”
The report also noted that PLHIVs experienced exclusion in social activities, being gossiped about, verbal and physical harassment, refused employment or denied promotion. There were even those whose wives, husbands, or partners “shared” the discrimination primarily directed at the PLHIVs.
Sympathetic courts
At the very least, Philippine courts have been on the side of PLHIVs when it comes to discrimination in the workplace.
In 2014, for example, a beauty salon worker with HIV won a labor dispute against his employer, a celebrity stylist, who was found guilty by a labor-management mediation court of discrimination and unlawful termination. The court ordered the celebrity stylist to reinstate the employee and pay back his salary and benefits.
Just this May, the Supreme Court ruled against the illegal dismissal and repatriation of a Filipino working in Saudi Arabia who had tested positive for HIV in a routine blood test in the company – a first case for the country in addressing workplace discrimination involving Filipinos with HIV working abroad.
The Supreme Court affirmed the appeals court’s ruling that the local recruitment agency and its president, as well as the foreign recruitment agency, were liable for the illegal dismissal of the worker. The Court cited the 2018 Philippine HIV and AIDS Policy Law that “prohibits the use of a person’s HIV-positive condition as a ground for dismissal.”
It added, “If the foreign law stated in the employment contract contradicts Philippine law, morals, good customs, public order or public policy, then Philippine law shall apply.”
Last Dec. 1, the Supreme Court for the first time joined the commemoration of World AIDS Day by conducting a one-day free HIV screening for its employees as a way of reinforcing the campaign to reduce fear, eliminate stigma and promote understanding about HIV and AIDS.
Meanwhile, Stegling reminded the Philippine government that “(with) today’s tools, people should not be infected at the disturbingly high rates we have seen emerge in the Philippines over the last several years.” In her official statement during her Philippine visit, she also encouraged Filipinos to not think of HIV as a “them” problem.
“(The) last 40 years have taught us that if we neglect ‘them’ long enough, HIV winds its way to new groups,” Stegling said. “Every individual, community and leader can help the Philippines turn the tide from the fastest growing HIV epidemic in Asia and the Pacific to a prevention success.” ◉
