Public apology due blacklisted theater director, says CHR

MANILA, Philippines—Theater director Marcelino Cavestany deserves a public apology after his name was placed on the immigration blacklist because he is HIV positive, according to the Commission on Human Rights.

CHR Chair Loretta Rosales also said that the Department of Justice, which oversees the Bureau of Immigration, should also investigate and punish those responsible for this incident of discrimination, and should adopt clear guidelines on immigration exclusion.

“To prevent the repetition of this odious practice, the Department of Justice, as the department primarily responsible for overseeing the Bureau of Immigration, must institute concrete measures to … issue an official apology to Mr. Cavestany,” Rosales said in a statement.

Cavestany was denied entry to the country on March 6, based on a blacklist order issued on March 10, 2010, that was signed by then immigration chief Marcelino Libanan. The order stated that he was to be denied entry to prevent the spread of HIV.
He has since been allowed to enter the country after an immigration official struck his name off the list.

Rosales hit the earlier decision of the BI, saying it was also an infringement on his freedom of movement, which is protected under international statutes.

The incident also smacked of ignorance, she added.

“Clearly, the refusal of entry of Mr. Cavestany at NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) last 6 March 2011 for the reason that he is HIV positive is unacceptable and illegal. The reason stated in Libanan’s exclusion order that he might spread HIV is as ignorant as it is speculative,” she said.

She pointed out that advances in science and human rights have allowed people to know that HIV is not a public health condition that requires the exclusion of the person with the virus.

She added that the country’s Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act also notes that HIV is not among the dangerous, loathsome or contagious diseases that immigration officials could use to blacklist someone.

According to her, it was ironic that Cavestany had come to the Philippines to educate Filipinos on the effects of AIDS.

Cavestany earlier said that the blacklist could have been the result of a fight he had with a member of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts which reportedly asked for the inclusion of the theater director’s name on the list.