Twilight Hideaway

Sitting by the beach before twilight comes has been my favorite hideaway for quite sometime now. The refreshing afternoon breeze; the calming waves sounds; the warm sand on my butt; and the scenic cloud formations blending with the sunset hue in the far away horizon always give me a feeling of inner peace. I guess this is how I cope now with the stresses of life, helping me to be calm about the uncertainties of tomorrow.

One afternoon, while on my hideaway stunt, I was tempted to browse on the notes I previously scribbled on my mobile. There were notes about hopes, trials, failures, challenges but this one commanded a pause and introspection: “I love watching the sunset. It reminds me that all days, bad or good, will end.” No wonder, being alone in the beach has been so momentous to me.



Then I noticed two people approaching where I was seated. They looked so engrossed with each other and romantically held each other while walking along the beach, on the spot where the waves kiss the sand. Sweeettttt.!

Red AIDS is now PINK in the Philippines

It’s been over a year since my last post in this blog site. I can still recall how enthusiastic I was when I started blogging. My life’s circumstances have somehow dimmed the blazing fire within. Nonetheless, I’m now trying to get back into writing some stuff, either sensible or otherwise.


So, what brought me back here? It’s my article “When Red AIDS becomes PINK”. Over a year back, the National Epidemiology Center (NEC-DOH) noted a sharp increase of HIV among the MSM (males who have sex with males) population. The basis then was merely the cumulative monthly reports at NEC which suggest a reversing trend of the Philippine HIV epidemics – i.e., from dominantly heterosexual (men-women-men) to dominantly homo/bi-sexual (men-to-men) transmission. From that trend, NEC projected a bad picture of exponential rise of recorded cases in the years to come if nothing indubitably significant will be done to slow down if not halt the momentum.

True enough, the projection held water. Results of the 2009 Integrated HIV Behavioral and Serologic Surveillance profoundly proved the premise. HIV in the Philippines is now officially PINK! What has been found-out? A stunning 65% of the confirmed HIV positive cases represent the MSMs. This is (almost) consistent with the cumulative recorded cases in 2009: 73% of 804 reported cases are MSMs. And here’s is another stunning story. Davao City is now considered to be one of the cities with high HIV prevalence among MSMs. And I’m talking about 4% of the 300 who participated in the 2009 IHBSS.

Let’s just say, six of the twelve cases have been HIV positive for the past five years or so, and at minimum, those 6 guys infected 3 partners in a month. That would be 6 (guys) times 3 (infected in a month) times 60 (months) = 1080 cases. This is really a very conservative projection, considering that some MSMs claim to have around 30 partners in a month. Please take note that I am just talking about 6 infections to start with here. And it did not end there. Many of the MSMs we surveyed have female partners also. Can you imagine the upcoming disaster? Ohh lala!

So why did this happen? The answer is simple. There has never been enough effort exerted to prevent an HIV outburst among the MSMs in the past couple of years. The increasing number of men pumping it up with another men and the rise of anal-sex-also preference over oral-sex-only have never been monitored and confronted. Obviously, condom use has never been in the picture, otherwise we would not see this thing happening.

So what would happen now? I’m seeing an increase of stigma and discrimination (again) for the MSM population (again). And as history has a vicious reputation to repeat itself, AIDS will again be associated to being a GAY DISEASE, like what happened in the early 80’s. Sad but true.