The missing face of AIDS

Today is World AIDS Awareness Day.

Somewhere in today’s Inquirer I’ve written something on the Unicef campaign to help children affected by HIV-AIDS. ``Affected by’’ means these children have parents(persons) living with HIV-AIDS (PLH) or are themselves infected.

By the way, you don’t say PWA (persons with AIDS) anymore. You say PLH. So much for being politically correct.

Children, Unicef says, are the missing face of AIDS. According to the Lunduyan Foundation’s study on Filipino children affected by AIDS, silence, sad to say, best describes the children’s situation. Their parents’ hesitancy to be forthright about the disease is one of the reasons why their children’s plight is not being addressed.

After reading the results of the study I wanted to meet and interview a family affected by HIV-AIDS but I was told that there is a great deal of hesitancy on the part of the families. In fact, out 373 identified children, only 95 were allowed by their parents to participate in the study.

But these children are not totally faceless or voiceless. Some stories in the study gave a face and a voice to the otherwise silent world.



Here is Nina’s story.

Nina was born in a foreign country where her father was working. Her mother was a former health care worker.

Nina was about four years old when her mother was first hospitalized. When she turned seven, life for her and her parents changed dramatically. Nina described it as a roller-coaster ride that went straight down.

``That was when my mother became sicker than before,’’ Nina recalled. ``She stayed long in the hospital. After she left the hospital, she moved into a house near the hospital. I had to change school in order to be with her. When Mama lost so much weight her friends stopped visiting.

``I was about 10 when we returned to the Philppines. Mama did not get better but at least she was happier here. Her relatives were within reach and the health services were better.’’
Nina’s family was just trying to settle down in their new home when her father accepted a job in the country they had just left.

``I was very sad because I needed Papa near me. I was afraid I would not be able to take care of Mama very well. I felt too young. But Papa had to go. We needed the money for Mama to get well.’’

Nina’s father left and she wouldn’t see him for a long time.

``The first few months after Papa left, Mama found the energy to attend to my needs,’’ Nina narrated. ``She even engaged in business and earned extra money to send to my aunts and uncles in the province. I adjusted to my new home, school, friends, and to Papa’s absence.

``But this did not last long. Mama became increasingly cranky and hotheaded. She seemed to be always angry with me. Nothing I did was right for her. She blamed me for the unpleasant things that happened between her and Papa. I felt guilty and sad. Maybe she was right. Because of my needs Papa had to go away to work.’’

After some time, Nina found out that her father had stopped sending money and he was having an affair. The financial burden had shifted to Nina’s mother. To make a long story short, Nina’s mother sold the house (which she had saved up to buy) and moved to the province.

``One time my mother arrived home from the hospital with papers that had the words HIV and AIDS,’’ Nina recalled. ``I asked her what they meant and she replied, `Someday you will understand.’’’

Nina’s mother went to Manila often for treatment, sometimes staying there for more than a week at a time. ``I had to amuse myself whenever I was left alone in the house. I often wore my superhero costumes and stood on my bed, pretending I had enemies or bad people to fight and drive away.

``One time, while she was packing her things before leaving for Manila Mama said to me, `Nina please bear with me. I just need to get well.’ I did not want to add to Mama’s worries so I told her that I was not a crybaby and that I was not afraid of ghosts. But what I really wanted to say was that I did not want to her to leave me. And that I was afraid for her. That night, I prayed so hard that Mama would get well soon and be with me.

``One day, Mama finally told me what was ailing her all these years. She also informed her brothers and sisters. There was not much time left for us.’’

Nina tried to locate her father. While doing this she felt her love for her father diminish. At her mother’s bedside things were just as bad. ``During those times that she was in the hospital Mama would be as cranky as she could be. She would often tell me or her friends that I should not have been born. Or that it was my fault that my father left us. It hurt but I knew she was going through an awful time.

``When Mama;s friends came by and asked how life would be when she’s gone, I would say, `I hope Papa takes me.’ I didn’t want to be with my aunts and uncles because they didn’t seem to like me. I’d rather be alone. I’d like to go on studying. Someday, I might become a good artist.’’

After her mother died, Nina was placed in the care of an uncle who had drinking problems and a troubled family life. Nina continued her studies until an NGO was able to track down her father. He was, it turned out, living with another woman who was pregnant with their child.

Nina now lives with them and takes care of the baby.

``In the end,’’ the study on children affected by HIV-AIDS says, ``the silence with which these children live is not only silence about HIV and AIDS but about many aspects of their lives... Their burden of silence is heavier, as they too often do not have the tools to understand HIV and AIDS and its impact on their families…’’

Deadly playgrounds, cold numbers

I had looked into their eyes. I had watched some of them cock their rifles and aim at an imaginary enemy lurking behind the trees. I had aimed my camera at them and captured the resoluteness in their gait as they carried the heavy weight on their frail bodies.

I saw these so-called child soldiers for the first time in the 1980s in a rebel training camp in the mountain fastness of Samar. In Bicol I also saw a young girl, maybe all of 16, carrying a rifle.

My body ached after that journalistic foray in the jungle but I did come up with a long story. We used the photo of the young boy carrying a long firearm, marching with grizzly rebels in the Sunday Inquirer.

That was many years ago but the images still burn in my mind. What a heavy burden for these children, I thought. I had tried carrying some of the heavy metal that the rebels carried and wore a bandoleer of bullets across my chest for a photograph of myself bristling with bullets. But that was for the fun of it. I still have that photo. In the background, heavily armed rebels played dama.

Now the law says you can no longer use the photographs of minors in a publication, show their faces on TV or identify them if they have been involved in illegal activities or are victims of crimes.



I recall these things again because of ``Deadly Playgrounds: The Phenomenon of Child Soldiers in the Philippines’’ published by PhilRights. According to PhilRights, a human rights research group, the book ``presents the sociodemographic profile, reasons, circumstances and effects of involvement, dreams and aspirations, of the 194 child soldiers (CS) interviewed in the study.’’

PhilRights does not claim that the results and conclusions of the study are representative of the whole population of child soldiers in the Philippines, but the study should be able to give an idea what the world of these children is like.

PhilRights says that the ``major finding in this research is the absence of force or the voluntary nature of children’s involvement in armed groups.’’

In its harsh editorial a few days ago, the Inquirer questioned PhilRights’ statement that the children joined the armed conflict without coercion or with freedom. PhilRights finding: ``Children join armed groups for reasons that include, but are not limited to, poverty, government neglect and apathy to the plight of the poor, ideological beliefs, secessionist advocacy and support for holy war, affiliation of family members in armed groups and pursuit of justice to avenge atrocities and abuses.’’

But even as PhilRights points a blaming finger at the government for its failure in addressing social problems that give rise to rebel groups, it also reminds non-state actors with children among their ranks about children’s rights. PhilRights does point out strongly that the CS phenomenon is an outright violation of children’s rights.

PhilRights sure has a long list of recommendations for the government and for civil society and stakeholders in the peace process.

For non-state armed groups who have children in their ranks PhilRights’ recommendations are a measly two paragraphs—that they respect the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

PhilRights’ research (funded by Bread for the World-Germany) is heavy stuff because of its academic and scientific approach. It groans with statistics, tables, graphs and numbers that buttress the findings and conclusions. This is not for inspirational reading. It is not for bleeding hearts. It sounds like a doctoral dissertation. Is this because PhilRights’ executive director has a PhD?

It leaves me cold. The children are never quoted or allowed to tell their story. I thought, what a pity. Weren’t PhilRights’ field researchers also made to gather the personal stories of the CS? What a world they could have explored. Or did they stick strictly to the checklist type survey instrument (shown in the Appendix)?

I have an appreciation for the weight of statistics but, as I said, they leave me cold. I’d like to see numbers but I’d also like to hear voices. PhilRights did use some children’s drawings only for one of their chapter breakers.

The Philippine Coalition to Stop the Use of Children as Soldiers did it differently. They made us listen to child soldiers. One said: ``I often carried an M-16. The heaviest I held was an M-14. It was so hard to cock and load. It was even made heavier by the bag of bullets. I once carried an M-203 with bullets as big as batteries. Upon joining, we were trained to fire, disassemble and clean guns. M-14s, M-16s, M-203s, and what to do in an ambush.’’

Voices from ``My Gun Was as Tall as Me: Child Soldiers in Burma’’ published by Human Rights Watch, an international human rights group:

``I left home and joined the armed group because I wanted to run away from my family because it was so bad and noisy. There was so much trouble and I hated getting hurt by my own family.’’

``I carried an armalite, an M-16. I was trained to use a gun, how to fire it, how to dismantle and assemble it. The training included hopping over rocks, crawling, rolling. That was for three weeks.’’

A few years ago the Inquirer had for a banner photo that of a young rebel girl seated among the ferns in the jungle, looking bewildered and frightened. A dead rebel lay beside her. It was the aftermath of a bloody encounter.

A soldier shot that photo. It spoke a thousand words. It stunned me, moved me. I wrote a column piece on it and still it haunted me for days.

Rape a violent crime of conquest

Man's discovery that his genitalia could serve as a weapon to generate fear must rank as one of the most important discoveries of prehistoric times. From the prehistoric times to the present, rape has played a critical function. It is a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear.

-Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will

Stereotypical rape scenes as depicted in movies and komiks do happen in real life. Ginahasa sa cogonan (raped amid tall grass) or ginahasa sa sagingan (raped in a banana grove) aren't imaginary scenes used to simply add color to lewd narratives, they actually and quite commonly take place in those proverbial places.

Tricycle drivers waylaying and then raping their young passengers has become stereotypical. Not that tricycle drivers are generally the raping kind. Maybe they just easily make it to the news because they have nowhere to run. They end up beaten up by the victims’ kin at the police stations and in front of the TV cameras, unlike the powerful types who could run away aboard their SUVs.

US servicemen raping ``the natives’’ should now be stereotypical too if we go by the statistics that Sen. Francis Pangilinan cited—3,000 rape cases against Americans have been dismissed in the Olongapo City court. I would presume that the cases were mostly against uniformed men.



Lawyer Katrina Legarda (who sent a congressman to jail for rape of a minor) who is handling the case of the young woman allegedly raped by five US soldiers last Nov. 1 has reason to worry and seek the transfer of the case to Manila.

There have been reactions to the media’s stress on the fact that the victim was not, repeat, not a sex worker. Women’s groups have repeatedly pointed out that prostitute or not, drunk or not, a woman does not deserve to be raped. The Inquirer had clarified that the headline that said the victim was not a sex worker was merely a reaction to an American’s argument that the victim had it coming.

Years ago, I went to Bilibid’s Death Row to interview convicts on the crime of rape that they had been convicted for. Of the 11 that I interviewed only two owned up. I could get so lucky. Facing the prospect of death (the death penalty had then been revived) or a long life behind bars didn’t seem to change their views.

``But I paid her,'' related Alex (not his real name), 38, a convicted rapist serving his sentence (reclusion perpetua). Alex said it rather casually, with nary a hint of remorse or indignation. He seemed to have accepted his prison sentence with resignation.

Alex, a jeepney driver, raped Nina, a 13-year-old schoolgirl, inside a jeepney parked in a cogon field. ``I was plying the Cubao-Antipolo route,'' Alex narrated. ``I picked up many passengers along the way and as I was nearing Antipolo, the passengers started to get off one by one. It was late in the afternoon and it was raining.

`` When I reached the end of my route I noticed this schoolgirl who hadn't gotten off. She had taken the wrong jeep. She asked me for directions, where she could take a ride back. I said I'd bring her to a waiting station.''

Alex didn't. He brought her to a cogon field. According to him, he parked his jeepney and offered the girl money--P50--if she would have sex with him. She refused repeatedly. ``Later, she consented,'' Alex said. He didn't have to force her, he claimed. It took all of 10 minutes.

Alex drove back to town with the girl who was near tears. He remembered dropping her off in front of a restaurant. Unknown to him, the girl sought the help of the restaurant owner who lost no time and brought the girl to the police. A few weeks later Alex was nabbed.

Alex and 11 other men were lined up before the victim for identification but Nina failed to identify her rapist. The line-up was reduced to six, then to three and then to two. Still Nina could not identify the rapist. ``It was when I spoke that she identified me,'' Alex said. ``She recognized my voice.''

Alex pleaded not guilty to the charge of rape, arguing that the victim had accepted the money. But he was found guilty just the same. It was proven that Alex had sex with Nina against her consent. She may not have had the telltale signs of struggle to ward off her molester, but Nina’s lawyers argued that she had been intimidated and ran the risk of being harmed had she refused.

And why did Alex do it? ``It just suddenly entered my head.'' It wasn't premeditated. He's had nights out with prostitutes, he told me, and so it wasn't as if he was so ``starved.'' But, he wanted a virgin, he added. And what did Alex think of women in general? ``They are weaker than men,’’ he answered. Violence against women has been perennially committed because of that thinking.

Rape is no longer a ``private crime.’’ The Anti-Rape Law of 1997 classifies rape as ``a crime against persons’’. For so long rape had been considered merely as ``a crime against chastity’’. This seemed to suggest that persons who were unchaste were fair game.

The crime of rape should have nothing to do with the chastity of the victim. Rape is not merely a sexual offense or a crime against chastity but a crime against persons and against the State. As one feminist lawyer had said, ``Rape is not a crime against the hymen. It is a crime against the whole person.’’

It is a crime of the strong against the weak, a crime of conquest. Speaking of conquest, the crime takes on a metaphorical color because the alleged perpetrators are citizens of a former colonizing nation.

We will be watching. We wish Katrina Legarda and her legal team strength of heart, endurance, light.

Women’s letter to rape victim

``We believe in you. We do not have to behold your face or know your name in order to say this.’’

Thus began the short but moving letter of 28 women’s groups and their allies to the 22-year-old victim of rape allegedly committed by five US servicemen last Nov. 1 in Subic.

The letter, expressed profoundly in Filipino, offered solace and solidarity with the woman from Mindanao who met her tragic fate while visiting Subic. Some members of the women’s groups that sent the letter are rape survivors themselves.

``We are with you while you weep, because your experience has been the experience of many of us. We are with you as you nurse the pain, because we also feel the pain when your dignity as a woman was trampled upon by US servicemen who had done the same to women in Angeles, Olongapo and other places. We are with you as you seek justice…We know that your healing will depend on many things, one of which is getting justice.’’

Those excerpts are for English speakers who do not understand Filipino. But there is nothing like reading the whole letter in the national language. It stabs deep into the heart. I hope the rape victim, whoever she is, wherever she is, would be able to read this and be convinced, really convinced, that she is not alone. Her kabaro are reaching out to her.



``Naniniwala kami sa ‘yo, kabaro.

``Hindi namin kailangang makita ang iyong mukha o malaman ang iyong pangalan para masabi namin ito.

``Sa matagal na panahon ng aming pagsama at pagtulong sa mga biktima ng panggagahasa, alam namin kung gaano kahirap ang lumantad bilang biktima. Lalong hindi madali sa iyong kalagayan dahil ang iyong isinusuplong ay anim na sundalong Amerikano. Alam namin na hindi ka magrereklamo kung hindi totoo ang iyong sinasabi.

``Kaya naman sa tapang na iyong ipinakita para simulan ang hakbangin tungo sa hustisya, sinasabi namin na naniniwala kami sa iyo at nandito kami para tumulong sa abot ng aming makakaya.

``Hindi kaiba sa marami sa amin ang matinding pinsala sa kaisipan at pagkatao na bunga ng pang-aabusong ito. Ilan sa amin ay naging biktima rin. Marami sa amin ay araw-araw na humaharap sa mga biktimang gaya mo at tumutulong bilang counselor, therapist, doktor, abogada, tagataguyod, kasama, kaibigan.

``Kasama mo kami sa iyong pag-iyak, dahil ang iyong karanasan ay karanasan ng marami. Kasama mo kami sa matinding sakit na iyong nararamdaman, dahil ramdam din namin ang pagyurak sa iyong dignidad at pagkatao, gaya ng ginawa ng maraming sundalong Amerikano sa maraming babae sa Angeles, Olongapo, at iba pang lugar. Kasama mo kami sa iyong paghangad ng hustisya, dahil ito ang nararapat at ito rin ang inaasam ng marami nating kabaro na naging biktima gaya mo.

``Alam namin na ang iyong paghilom at paggaling ay nakasalalay sa maraming bagay, kasama dito ang pagkuha ng hustisya.

Sana ay maging matatag ka sa mga susunod na araw. Sa iyong pakikipaglaban para sa iyong dignidad at karapatan, taos-puso kaming nag-aalay ng aming tulong. Nandito kami. Handang samahan ka.’’

The women’s groups, led by Women’s Education, Development, Productivity, Research and Advocacy Organization (WEDPRO), said they are willing to walk with the victim. ``Nandito kami. Handang samahan ka.’’ (We are here. Ready to be at your side.)

Aida Santos of WEDPRO however stressed that ``despite the women’s outrage over the incident, and being reminded of past incidents, we need to take into consideration what the 22-year-old woman and her family want to do. She is the most important person in this case. We are trying our best to make a personal and hopefully quieter way of reaching out to her. This is a political issue, but most of all, this is a very personal issue.’’

Santos cited examples of victims opting to retract or for an out-of-court settlement leaving outraged sympathizers out in the cold. But rape being a public crime, there is no way suspects could avoid prosecution if the evidence is strong.

I agree that this is a grave personal and national issue. The initial protests against the perpetrators of the crime and the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement are to be expected. But I also think that women’s groups should not do an overkill without first hearing from the victim herself. Pressure from many sides could leave the victim confused and feeling that she is but a fodder in a raging issue.

What does she want for herself? How does she want the case resolved? What form of justice?

Santos pointed out that media’s overemphasis on the fact that the victim was ``not a sex worker’’ seemed to imply that if she were a prostitute or a loose woman it was okay to abuse her.

``Prostitute or not, drunk or not, no woman deserves to be used like a piece of commodity and thrown away,’’ Santos said.

A visiting US national had earlier twitted women at a protest rally and in front of the media that the victim was probably a prostitute and therefore had it coming.

In a separate statement, the same women’s groups demanded that the Philippine government pursue all means necessary to immediately prosecute those who committed the crime. ``This is not the first time US soldiers showed pure contempt for a Filipino woman and, in effect, Filipino women in general.’’

Among the 28 signatories of the letter to the rape victim and the statement were Kalayaan, Likhaan, Women’s Legal Bureau, Women Step In, Women’s Rage, Women Working Together to Stop Violence Against Women, Nagkakaisang Kababaihan ng Angeles City and International Women’s Network Against Militarism.

It has been announced that the next US ambassador to the Philippines is, for the time, a woman. We are eager to know how she views the case.

VCO as bird flu remedy?

News flash.

If coconut oil proved effective for HIV-AIDS cases, it might also be good as a H5N1 (bird flu) remedy. Studies must now be made on the oil’s efficacy against this new disease that threatens to become a worldwide epidemic.

This urgent proposal came from Dr. Conrado S. Dayrit who helped make virgin coconut oil (VCO) a popular dietary supplement and medicine here and abroad and helped remove it from the ``bad oil’’ list.

Dayrit, hale and active at 86, is a known pharmacologist, cardiologist, internist, science researcher author and University of the Philippines professor emeritus. He was former president of the National Academy of Science of Technology, the highest scientific body in the country.

The team Dayrit directed in the early 1990s proved that HIV-AIDS cases responded to coconut oil. The highly promising results are now the bases for continued trials meant to alleviate the suffering of millions HIV-AIDS patients countries especially those in Africa.

Dayrit outlined his proposal and rationale in his Oct. 24 letter personally delivered to the office of health secretary Francisco Duque III.

Dayrit’s proposal was for ``Southeast Asian countries affected by H5N1 (bird flu) to conduct clinical, animal and viral studies on the effectiveness of coconut oil (either RBD copra oil or virgin coconut oil) which the Philippines can supply.’’



RBD refers to the refined, bleached and deodorized oil used for cooking. VCO is the result of the cold-press method that uses either no heat or little heat for moisture removal.

Dayrit’s proposed studies which, he said ``we cannot do in the Philippines as we have neither the virus not the patient’’ is as follows:

• Protocol I – Laboratory test: H5N1 cell cultures treated with a range of concentration of (a) RBD or copra derived oil (ex. Minola brand) (b) virgin coconut oil (Oleum brand)

• Protocol II – On infected birds (chickens, geese, ducks). Add coconut oil to their feed and drinking water and monitor any beneficial effects

• Protocol III A – On patients with H5N1 virus. Administer VCO in doses of 30 ml every 8 hours or 3 times a day as sole antiviral agent (monotherapy). In case of availability of Tamiflu (oseltamivir), patient’s consent and choice will have to be considered

• Protocol III B – Patients with H5N1 infections. Duotheraphy with Tamiflu and VCO.

Dayrit’s rationale: ``Coconut oil fatty acids are predominantly (67-72%) medium chain (MC) saturated, not long-chain saturated. MC fats (C8, C10, C12) have been shown by Kabara and others to kill enveloped lipid-coated viruses, gram positive bacteria, fungi and some protozoa with lauric acid (C12) being most active. C14 myristic acid has additional activity.

``These four fatty acids working in synergistic natural combination are present in coconut oil, not as free acids but as glyceride esters. While triglycerides and diglycerides are inactive, their monoglycerides are strongly antimicrobiologically more active than their free fatty acids.’’

Dayrit is the author of the fast-selling book ``The Truth About Coconut Oil: The Drugstore in a Bottle’’. He also wrote a book on the history of Philippine medicine and is preparing a book on pharmacology for rational drug use.

Dayrit reminded Duque that he directed a team in treating 14 HIV-AIDS cases in San Lazaro Hospital with coconut oil. Their study later proved that coconut oil could lower viral count and raise CD4 lymphocytes as effectively as monolaurin (monoglyceride of lauric acid).

``Minola brand was the oil we used then,’’ Dayrit told the Inquirer, ``as there was no VCO yet.
Therefore coconut oil is anti-viral as is, Dayrit stressed in his letter, and this explains why there are now so many testimonials of colds and flu being put under control by those taking VCO.

``VCO might even be more effective than RBD copra-derived Minola or Baguio oil,’’ Dayrit added. ``Since H5N1 is a flu virus and lipid coated, it very likely will be also susceptive to CO viricidal action.’’

Dayrit added: ``The Philippines has very few HIV-AIDS cases, as you well know, and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) never took off here although we had some SARS patients traveling around on their return (from work abroad). Could this resistance be due to our CO consumption?’’

Dayrit listed reasons why CO should be considered. CO is a food and has no known side effects or toxicity level. Peoples of South Pacific have been regularly taking more than 50-60 percent of caloric intake as coconut fat and have no widespread heart disease or toxic symptoms.

There have been no reports of developing resistance to the cidal effects of CO.

Lastly, Tamiflu itself is untested for its effectivity against H5N1 and for adverse reactions.

Dayrit knows Duque personally. Duque succeeded Dayrit’s son Dr. Manuel Dayrit, as health secretary. The former secretary, known for his efforts to stop the spread of SARS in the Philippines, is now with the World Health Organization in Geneva.

Dayrit added in his letter to Duque that he has talked to his son about a WHO endorsement. The younger Dayrit suggested an ethics committee approval from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).

The bird flu virus has reportedly infected 118 people in Asia, of whom 61 have died. Cases in Europe have been reported. The virus could spread fast via migratory birds. Millions could die if the virus spreads, world health experts said. Health officials from 30 countries recently met in Canada to prepare and coordinate efforts.

Why don’t we give this a try?