MALACAÑANG

Manila

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES

PROCLAMATION NO. 888

DECLARING 1997 AS NATIONAL AIDS PREVENTION YEAR

WHEREAS, Art. II Sec. 15 of the 1987 Constitution provides that “the state shall protect and promote the right to health of the people and instill health consciousness among them;”

WHEREAS, international experts have declared HIV/AIDS as a “global pandemic” and a “planetary emergency” because of the increasingly large number of people worldwide who are getting infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS;

WHEREAS, the Philippines has not been spared from the epidemic, in that from the time the first AIDS case was discovered in 1984, the reported number of HIV case in the country has increased to 765;

WHEREAS, in response to the growing threat of HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country and its potential socio-economic impact, the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC) was created in 1992 through Executive Order No. 39;

WHEREAS, the PNAC, a multi-sectoral body tasked to advise the President of the Philippines on AIDS prevention and control policies, crafted the National HIV/AIDS Strategies, a comprehensive and national approach to HIV/AIDS prevention and control, after a series of nationwide consultations and consensus building;

WHEREAS, there is an urgent need to strengthen the implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategies which include, among other things, the creation and fostering of an environment that would help ensure better understanding of all AIDS related issues;

WHEREAS, it has been recognized that public information and education is the most effective and most viable measure to prevent and control the spread of HIV/AIDS;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FIDEL V. RAMOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby declare 1997 as National AIDS Prevention Year to highlight the government’s commitment in the campaign against HIV/AID and to ensure the success of the country’s hosting of the 1997 International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Republic of the Philippines to be affixed.

Done in the City of Manila, this 30

^th

day of September , in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and ninety six.

(Sgd.)

FIDEL V. RAMOS

By the President:

(Sgd.) RUBEN D. TORRES