THE NUMBERS don’t lie. They scream.
Iloilo Province has recorded 2,174 HIV cases from 1988 to March 2025, the highest in Western Visayas, accounting for 34 percent of the region’s total. Iloilo City follows with 1,694 cases. But what’s more disturbing is the trend: in just the first quarter of 2025 alone, 111 new infections were recorded in the province—40 in March—along with 15 HIV-related deaths.
And if these numbers don’t alarm our decision-makers, perhaps this will: The epidemic is rapidly accelerating among the young. Of the reported cases, 267 came from the 15–24 age group, while 361 are from those aged 25–34. These are not mere figures. These are young lives—students, workers, future leaders—cut short or pushed into a lifetime of treatment and stigma.
This is not a slow-moving health issue. It’s an emergency that’s moving faster than our policies, faster than our funding, and faster than our ability to talk about it.
At a recent forum in Iloilo hosted by the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines, health experts revealed a key contributor to this crisis: fear-driven silence. Too many parents still believe that educating their children about condoms or giving them access to HIV prevention tools like PrEP is tantamount to encouraging sexual behavior. This is a dangerous myth that must be dismantled. As Dr. Lloyd Brendan Norella of Pilipinas Shell Foundation put it, “We’re not normalizing sex at a young age. We’re responding to a reality.”
So, if we know the reality, why are we still hesitating?
This is a call to action—for local governments, school administrators, health leaders, and national policymakers. Stop treating HIV like a background concern. Prioritize it. Budget for it. Talk about it in classrooms and barangay halls. Launch outreach not only for the youth but also for their parents. We cannot expect adolescents to make informed, responsible choices when the adults around them remain uninformed or in denial.
The Department of Education is working to update its sex education curriculum. That’s commendable—but not enough. The Department of Health is crafting inclusive strategies. Good—but still too slow. We need a national executive order on HIV prevention to institutionalize comprehensive, science-based interventions and normalize access to condoms, PrEP, testing, and treatment. We need consistency. We need speed.
Time is not on our side. Every quarter we delay, the virus spreads to more young people. Every month we remain silent, more families are left to grieve in private.
If not now, when?
Do we wait until we reach another grim milestone—200 new infections in a quarter? Fifty deaths in a year? Until then, will we still call for “more study”? Or worse—will we simply move on?
No. We act now. Talk about HIV. Talk about prevention. Fund the programs. Train the teachers. Empower the parents. Protect the youth.
Because when it comes to this epidemic, later is already too late.
