MANILA, Philippines -- Thirty-five percent of HIV and AIDS cases in the Philippines are from overseas Filipino workers, Senator Pia Cayetano said in a statement Saturday."Around 35 percent of our HIV cases have been traced to returning OFWs. Unfortunately, some of them come home bringing in not only their hard-earned dollars, but also the HIV they acquire from having unprotected sex abroad,” said the chairperson of the Senate committee on health and demography. Cayetano said the rising number of cases of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in the country should be a cause for concern for the Arroyo government. "It should serve as a wake-up call. The government should ditch its one-track mind policy of promoting natural family planning methods only, in favor of a program that would address the population problem as well as the spread of sexually transmitted diseases," she said. Cayetano said that the Department of Health should not only focus on controlling the spread of documented local HIV/AIDS cases, but also how to prevent cases of HIV infection being caused by returning OFWs. "The infected OFW unknowingly infects his wife, who in turn infects her baby once she gets pregnant," she explained. "It's possible that the actual number of HIV/AIDS cases could be bigger than what is being documented. The DoH must study what systems to put in to educate our OFWs about HIV/AIDS," she added. Cayetano said the government's anti-AIDS campaign will get a big boost if Filipinos are adequately armed with information on how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases by using protection, such as condom. "The government must seriously embark on a safe sex education campaign even if this runs against the President's position favoring natural contraceptives only," she added, in reference to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's pitch for natural family planning methods in her State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July. "A reproductive health bill that integrates a safe sex education program will not only address the population issue, but also the looming AIDS epidemic that the DOH has warned us about," she suggested. | 
