LGBTQIA organization Bahaghari issued a challenge to the incumbent administration of Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., son of the late dictator, to “step up” to fill the gaps left behind by the removal of aid from the US.
The first criminal to be elected as president of the US, Donald Trump, issued an executive order to withdraw all foreign aids from the US government. Among the affected programs are youth-focused projects as well as health servicing including the distribution of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a medication which prevents the transmission of HIV and which is critical in epidemic control for countries such as the Philippines. Presently, development workers from affected organizations around the world are also facing mass layoffs as a result of the overnight collapse of support.
Bahaghari stated that it “unequivocally condemns” what Trump has done, considering that the US government continues to be “wasting hundreds of billions of US tax money to fund brutal proxy wars of aggression from Ukraine to Palestine, and with its unprecedented military spending to deploy troops and armaments in the Philippines and the Indo-Pacific to encircle China” that force it to cut “social services, including both federal and foreign aid.”
“As an ultraconservative chauvinist and fascist, it is also no surprise that… Trump has first paralyzed services related to women, children, and the LGBTQIA community,” the organization stressed, adding that “the US government can only reap condemnation from the rest of the world for prioritizing war and profit over people’s lives and wellbeing.”
And yet for Bahaghari, the overnight collapse of US development aid must serve as a wake up call for countries reliant on US support, including the Philippines.
“It is… time we recognize that while on one hand there are beneficiaries as a result of US foreign aid, ultimately, this aid is predatory and conditional, forcing smaller countries like ours to be tied to the fiscal and geopolitical whims of the US government. In our case as Filipinos, we cannot allow something as crucial as Philippine healthcare to be dependent on the machinations of another country.”
Sadly, this year, the budget allocation for the Department of Health was reduced by ₱25.8 billion, while the PhilHealth subsidy of ₱74.4 billion was removed entirely. “Higher shares were instead given to pork barrel projects and cash aid programs which will no doubt be used as a new form of vote buying this 2025. Instead of mispriority (sic), complacency, and reliance on precarious US foreign aid, Marcos must urgently increase domestic funding for healthcare and support the affected organizations providing lifesaving care and service for PLHIVs in the Philippines.”
For Bahaghari, “as a long-term measure, we challenge the Marcos admin to pursue a program of national industrialization. By developing our economy beyond the simple extraction of raw materials and semi-processing, and allowing for the production of goods and machines outside of the US’ monopoly, we can pave the way for the independent production of essential healthcare materials — including HIV commodities.”
Bahaghari added: “As the NGOs affected by the USAID pullout have proven, the Philippines has no shortage of skilled workers and volunteers capable of addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic, providing consultation services and safe transition mechanisms for transgender individuals, and promoting people’s reproductive health. We have the people. What we need is a government that will prioritize and fund them. The health and safety of Filipinos should not be decided by a foreign power. Filipinos’ health must be in Filipinos’ hands.”
