Sex-seeking Tourists Could Affect HIV-AIDS Control in Philippines

A party-list lawmaker on Wednesday said the influx of male foreign tourists looking for sex in the Philippines could affect the government's program to control the spread of HIV-AIDS.

LPG-MA Rep. Arnel Ty said US Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr.’s declaration that four in 10 male foreign tourists, including Americans, who travel to the Philippines seek to engage in sexual activity here "does not bode well for Philippine efforts to fight HIV."

From January to July this year, a total of 2,280,184 foreigners, including 390,028 Americans, arrived in the country.

While the DOT statistics did not specify the gender divide of the arrivals, Ty said that based on historical figures, males comprise an average of 65 percent of all foreigners who visit the country every year.

“What is perhaps more worrisome is that many male foreign tourists come from Western countries that, when compared to the Philippines, have much livelier commercial sex industries, which are potential AIDS hotspots,” he said in a statement.

He added: "There are also claims that many male foreign tourists who travel to Manila tend to visit other Southeast Asian countries that, again when compared to the Philippines, have more active and riskier sex trades from an AIDS control perspective."

Ty has been pushing for highly aggressive measures to suppress HIV and improve the welfare of the growing number of Filipinos living with the virus that causes the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS.

The lawmaker and 4 fellow congressmen recently filed a bill seeking to update the country’s 13-year-old AIDS Prevention and Control Law.

Nine in 10 new HIV cases passively diagnosed in the Philippines were infected as a result of risky or unprotected sexual contact. In July alone, a record-high seven new HIV cases every day were detected in the country.

Next to South Korea, America is the Philippines’ second biggest source of foreign tourists. Other countries providing large numbers of visitors to the Philippines are Japan, China, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore, Canada, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Germany.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

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