'Sex-tripping' foreigners not good for AIDS control — solon

A lawmaker said US Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr.’s claim that four out of 10 male foreign tourists come to the Philippines for sex does not augur well for the country's fight against the predominantly sexually transmitted human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In a news release on Wednesday, Rep. Arnel U. Ty (LPG-MA Party List) said, “If we are to believe the US ambassador’s claim, then last year alone, the Philippines received approximately 915,000 male foreign tourists, including 156,000 Americans, who all potentially came here intent on sexual activity." Back up or back off? Ty issued the statement a day after Senator Francis Escudero challenged Thomas to either back up with proof or withdraw his claim. Escudero on Tuesday asked the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to take action against Thomas for claiming that 40 percent of the male foreign tourists in the country come for sex. "I don't think we should let it go just because he's the ambassador of the United States," Escudero said during Tuesday's Senate finance committee hearing on the budget of the DFA for 2012. At a round-table discussion among Court of Appeals magistrates in Manila in September, Thomas said it was unacceptable but "we know that 40 percent of foreign men who come to the Philippines, including from the US, come for sexual tourism." "That is not something I'm proud of. That's not something you should be proud of. I told [Philippine Department of Justice] Secretary Leila de Lima that any American caught engaged in any of these crimes or cybersex should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and we will assist," Thomas said. On Wednesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said it does not have figures on sex trade in the Philippines, contrary to Thomas' reported statement. Speaking to reporters, Justice Secretary Leila De Lima denied that the DOJ provided the information that 40 percent of male foreign tourists in the Philippines come for sex. The DOJ supervises the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), the primary government body against human trafficking. "As far as I know, the DOJ does not gather or collate statistics on sex tourists. We don't have anything like that. I don't recall anything or any statistics that the DOJ or IACAT has prepared. At this point, I can say the information did not come from us," said De Lima. Also on Wednesday, De Lima said Thomas has yet to respond to her letter asking him to clarify his statement on sex tourism in the Philippines. "It is in this connection that we respectfully request Your Excellency for confirmation of the accuracy of the said news reports, and for the data which provided the basis for the information. These would go a long way in assisting us in determining with dispatch the investigative and prosecutorial action required," said her letter dated October 3. "I am confident that Your excellency is aware that the policies and operations of the Philippine government, including our active participation in international efforts to combat trafficking in persons, have amply demonstrated our determination to prevent, prosecute, and punish the commission of this crime," De Lima added. Not good for anti-AIDS drive Ty said, “The figures [mentioned by Thomas] imply a whole lot of male visitors looking for sexual activity. Offhand, this does not augur well for our drive to control the spread of HIV." Ty arrived at his estimate by extrapolating Department of Tourism (DOT) statistics, which indicated that a total 3,520,471 foreigners, including 600,165 Americans, arrived in the Philippines in 2010. From January to July this year, a total of 2,280,184 foreigners, including 390,028 Americans, arrived in the Philippines. 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," Ty said. “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," he added. According to the website HIV.com, "In the United States, over 600,000 reported cases of AIDS have been recorded since 1981 and it is believed that 900,000 Americans may be infected with HIV." Measures vs. HIV 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 (AIDS). Only recently, Ty and four of his colleagues filed a bill seeking to add more teeth to the country’s 13-year-old AIDS Prevention and Control Law, which they said has been outmoded by the changing times and the rapid expansion of the contagious disease. Nine out of 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 of seven new HIV cases every day were detected in the country. Next to South Korea, America is the Philippines’ second biggest supplier 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. Global epidemic According to "The Global Fund," "more than 33 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, 95 percent of them in developing countries." The site said there were 1.8 million AIDS-related deaths in 2009. "Beyond the devastating toll in human suffering, the impact of AIDS also produces measurable economic loss. AIDS was declared a development crisis by the World Bank in 2000 when virtually no one living with HIV outside the developed world was receiving lifesaving antiretroviral therapy," it added. - with Sophie Dedace, VVP, GMA News