What we see, what we get

As the media was hot on their coverage of President Rodrigo Duterte’s latest tussle with the Catholic Church, the Chief Executive had signed several laws in December last year which Malacañang released on a piecemeal basis at the start of the new year.

But the President’s wrangling with the most powerful Christian church in the Philippines was deemed more controversial by the media than say the enactment of Republic Act 11166 or the Philippine HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) Policy Act of 2018.

This new law will repeal the Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998, updating all its decade-worth of action against the dreaded disease which, at this point, is reaching an alarming growth rate in the country.

There has been a remarkable advance in the search for HIV/AIDS cure and these necessitated the new law. Science is making progress in slowing down the advancement of HIV to AIDS, necessitating government’s establishment of programs and policies and adopt a multisectoral approach to prevent the spread of the disease.

What was good a decade ago had taken leaps that pharmaceutical research could be nearing discovery of a drug that could offer functional cure to AIDS, in which HIV could be reduced to undetectable and harmless levels in the body permanently, although residual virus may remain.

Other research is focused on possibly finding a sterilizing cure in which HIV is eradicated from the body completely. But this is a more complex study and some say is risky, although trials of HIV vaccines have been encouraging the past decade.

So far, however, these vaccines offer partial protection only.

However, government also needs to keep up with these advancements, or the country would be behind the race to slow down, if not stop, the spread of HIV/AIDS.

It has to ensure victims have access to HIV and AIDS-related services. It needs to elevate discussions through educational and health institutions to help eliminate stigma and discrimination on patients.

Through the new law, the Philippine National AIDS Council is now being reconstituted and streamlined to ensure effective implementation of the country’s HIV/AIDS program.

Those who will discriminate against HIV-positive individuals will also be penalized.

Although HIV/AIDS cases in country are still on low, the Philippines has one of the highest increases of infections in the Asia-Pacific from 2010 to 2016. We need not wait for an epidemic to happen, thus the law.

In November 2018, the Department of Health (DoH) reported 945 new HIV cases, bringing the total number of HIV infections to 10,550 in the first 11 months of 2018. The Philippines has on record 61,152 HIV cases since the government started keeping track of the spread of the viral infection in 1984. But there could be more outside of these numbers.

Most cases were reported among men who have sex with men. DoH records show that of the 61,152 HIV positive individuals recorded since 1984, 57,235 were male.

Also late last year, President Duterte signed a law to provide adequate health and nutrition services to mothers and children during their early days of development.

Republic Act 11148, the First 1,000 Days Law, requires government to scale up nutrition intervention programs for infants and young children up to two years old, adolescent females and pregnant and lactating women. Provision of vaccines, deworming, vitamin A drops and iron and food supplements to infants and women are also ensured.

The poor and those who live in disaster-prone areas, communities isolated by distance and inaccessibility to transportation and those belonging to vulnerable sector are prioritized in the measure.

The DoH is again on top of this along with the National Nutrition Council, Department of Agriculture and other concerned agencies.

And then there is the new law that institutionalizes work-from-home arrangements in the private sector.

This is timely as government has to find ways to solve the clogging of Metro Manila and the other key provincial cities affected by migration and transplanting of communities to pounce on the greener pastures they offer.

The law, known as the Telecommuting Act or Republic Act 11165, was signed by the President several days before Christmas. It recognizes the telecommuting technology as vital to growth while keeping life and home-work balance.

Home-work balance is now an essential need for millions of Filipinos who get trapped in commuting and traffic for nearly a third of their day’s life just to be able to work. It is not healthy and government deserves commendation for recognizing the issue that affects most, if not all, of us.

Government has acknowledged that an employee of a company can now do his job in an alternative workplace using telecommunications and other computer technologies — as a legitimate work arrangement — outside of their physical work places.

The law provides an employer in the private sector to offer employees a telecommuting program on a voluntary basis, but the arrangement should abide by the minimum labor standards, meaning the employees will have compensable and minimum number of work hours, overtime pay, rest days and entitlement to leaves.

Employees taking advantage of this arrangement are assured of fair treatment similar to employees working from the traditional workplace of the employer. They will be entitled to overtime and night-shift differential, rest periods, regular holidays, special nonworking holidays, same equivalent workload and standards, same access to training and career development opportunities.

The Department of Labor and Employment will start a telecommuting pilot program for select industries in the next three years for this.

Work-life balance is aimed at ensuring higher productivity as a result of the ability to work uninterrupted, skill retention, greater staff commitment and better motivation and customer service.

This arrangement could be appealing to many as it is envisioned to provide a greater well-being and ensure less stress.

There will also be a reduced carbon footprint as a result of employees no longer required to travel, thus saving on fuel and travel time. There will also be reduced overhead costs for the company.

These may not be appealing to some, but these developments were charted to make a better future for the country.

But laws which are not as controversial as say government’s strong stance against the manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs, hardly create an impact and only the controversial issues get noticed.

There are times, however, when what we see and hear are not what we get.

Sometimes, we get better deals unnoticed. It’s just that either we are not listening or looking when they pass by.