BAGUIO CITY—Lying in bed after the death of her mother in 1986, she chanced upon a falling star and made a wish. “I wish to become a doctor someday,” she whispered.

Twenty-two years later, Dr. Celia Brillantes is recognized as one of the best doctors in the city, who has shown dedication and passion for her work as head of the Social Hygiene Clinic (SHC) here, where she works with night workers and entertainers.

The job was far from easy, recalls Brillantes of her early years as head of SHC when she established the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of the Health department, which monitors new and emerging sexually transmitted infections (STI).

“It was very difficult to build a relationship with the women entertainers,” she said, adding that they were suspicious at first and worried that she would report them to the police. It took 10 years for the doctor and her team to earn the women’s trust. Today, older sex workers encourage the young ones to visit the clinic.

“I had no inkling that I would end up in this kind of work,” confided Brillantes, who earned her medical degree from the Saint Louis University in 1991 with the help of a Unilab scholarship. After internship at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center and fresh from school, she worked as a civilian doctor in the Philippine Military Academy Hospital. Her free hours were spent as volunteer for the Baguio Health Department, until she filled up an urgent posting as a point person for the STI/HIV/AIDS program.

The job, she realized, gave her a glimpse of another reality. “At first I was shocked by the stories of the girls who came in, and I felt so blessed that their life was not mine,” she recalled. Despite their good looks, the women needed a lot of help, something that the doctor vowed to offer them.

That help earned her several awards recently: the Outstanding Citizen Award (Baguio City), the Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award and the Most Outstanding Employee of the Year for Health Services.

Under Brillantes’ stewardship, the SHC was commended for being the most ideal social hygiene center in the country by the Health department, the Family Health International and USAID. With only one nurse, one doctor and one lab technician, and less than a million pesos as annual budget, SHC offers complete services, from gram testing of various STIs to their treatment. The clinic currently serves some 800 entertainers on a regular basis, 30 of whom are males. They are routinely checked for STIs and given the required clearances for their work. The tests are offered at subsidized cost, sometimes for free.

The SHC team also makes its round of nightspots at least twice a month to inspect them for hygiene, as well as to distribute condoms and educate night workers on the importance of safe sex, if not abstinence, or a change of work. Among other services, the team conducts in-house seminars on safe sex, alternative livelihoods, and condom negotiation skills to encourage 100 percent condom use.

“We cannot keep an eye on entertainers 24/7 to discourage them from having sex,” explained Brillantes. “Behavior-wise, it is very difficult to educate this group. So instead, we teach them proper condom use and encourage them to value themselves and have self-respect.”

Women who go to the clinic need not worry about being stigmatized either, the doctor said. The SHC is designed to ensure privacy and confidentiality, with a separate lab, treatment room and counseling room. Brillantes has also established a dress code among the women that has helped improve their image.

“They used to come in wearing skimpy clothing,” she recalled. “Many would come drunk and unbathed. Now they come in decently dressed and freshly showered.” The clinic also teaches the girls discipline by making sure that appointments are kept, or else they lose their turn.

The clinic works closely with peer educators of the AIDS Watch Council. Recently, it has also linked up with Cross Over Ministry that helps the SHC with its alternative learning project in coordination with the Education department. Under this program, the women are taught bead-making as alternative livelihood.

Many entertainers envision a better life for themselves, but with families to support and not much education or livelihood skills, they slip back to the sex trade, observed Brillantes. She added that most sex workers work for below minimum wage, and are often let go before they reach six months’ employment, a tactic most club owners employ to avoid giving them work benefits.

Massage girls, for instance, get paid P250, but pocket only P50 such that they are compelled to enter the sex trade to meet their basic needs. A few, however, manage to start life anew, finding good husbands and starting their own small businesses. One woman, Brillantes cited, is now working as a security guard.

“We try to be very gentle with them and provide them with honest to goodness caring. We never condemn. We’re talking about human beings and health so we cannot do away with compassion and the human touch,” the doctor added.

A mother of four and married to a major in the Air Force, Brillantes said her life has been blessed. Working in government may not exactly be a wish come true, but that hasn’t stopped this doctor from again making a wish upon a star. All she wishes for now, this health service awardee revealed, is for the day to come when “entertainment is just entertainment—without the sex.” Women’s Feature Service