Took them long enough!
The Department of Health (DOH) has announced that – moving forward – it will take more responsibility in financing the country’s HIV efforts.
In a statement made during the gathering for the Philippine Country Coordinating Mechanism (PCCM) for the Global Fund (GF), DOH secretary Teodoro J. Herbosa, MD, that because countries that used to fund the country’s HIV efforts have changed their focus to “nationalistic and individualistic idealism”, then it is no longer sustainable to rely on them.
“With growing nationalistic and individualistic idealism spreading across countries, the responsibility to fund health initiatives cannot fall solely on international donors. International financing, though crucial, cannot be relied upon indefinitely. Sole reliance on external aid is not a sustainable financing model,” Herbosa stated.
America’s first criminal president, Donald Trump, earlier ordered that his country stop handing out aid, which affects the PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), a US program that invests to curb the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.
According to estimates, PEPFAR’s elimination would lead to 601,000 HIV-related deaths, 565,000 new HIV infections, and would increase population-level healthcare expenditure by $1.7 billion due to increased HIV prevalence in South Africa alone.
HIV has continued to be a non-issue for the administration of Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. – e.g. in the past, the DOH reported on HIV data in the country every month, but this was lessened to quarterly reporting.
“Now, it is clear that governments including ours must recognize our own priorities and take more responsibility for financing these priorities in our national health budgets, lessening our dependence on international funding cycles and external decisions and protocols,” Herbosa said.
For Herbosa, increasing domestic financing is “one of the most sustainable solutions” since “as a country, must find ways to source funds that international partners have previously funded.”
But the DOH has yet to provide specifics – e.g. how much funding will be allocated for HIV, where – exactly – this will be sourced, how this allocation will be spent, et cetera.
