On May 3, Miss Universe 2015 Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach visited the Ateneo de Manila University in light of her appointment as the new Goodwill Ambassador for the Asia and the Pacific of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). She was tasked with spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS to the youth, whom she herself feels she interacts and influences the most.

Wurtzbach raised many important issues related to HIV/AIDS in the Philippines, and one of them is the lack of information that the public has about the disease. She explained that anyone can contract HIV, not just people who have unprotected sex with an HIV-positive partner.

And she’s right – it can be contracted by using needles that have been used to prepare drugs against HIV and by infants from their mothers, but despite those facts, many people still treat HIV/AIDS patients with discrimination and our society, as a whole, still sees sex as taboo.

In a time when HIV information as well as drugs and antiretroviral therapy against HIV are more available, HIV incidence in the Philippines continues to rise. The number of reported cases of HIV in the Philippines increase per year, according to the Department of Health Epidemiology Bureau, indicating either more widespread information about HIV and HIV testing or a higher incidence of HIV cases.

In support of the former, interestingly, the number of reported asymptomatic cases of HIV rose from 90% from 2014 to 93% in 2015, meaning more people are conscious of getting tested early for HIV. Unfortunately, AIDS incidence still continues to rise, proving that current public information about HIV is not enough to prevent the consequences that arise from not being tested early enough for HIV.

HIV/AIDS is just one of the issues we can hope to combat once we strengthen widespread sex education. Thankfully, the administration is on-board in implementing appropriate sex education and all that’s left is to see how it’ll be carried out.

Beyond institutions, however, it’s also important that families fulfill their own role in educating their children about sex. Because of the conservatism that pervades Filipino families, parents do away with a proper conversation with their children and settle with vague taunts, such as, “mag-ingat ka, baka hindi ka makapagtapos (be careful with your body, you might not finish school),” without explaining what sex really means.

Having said all these things, it’s important to consider that sex education is not just about teaching other people how to have safe sex, but also about teaching its consequences, its related diseases, its related practices to any religions, and most importantly, one’s agency in deciding to partake in any related matters after being thoroughly informed about it.