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(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Byline: Marlon Ramos
PILILIA, Rizal-If stories of kind-hearted people saving stray animals and treating them as their own amaze you, wait till you meet retired pilot Virgilio Ecarma and his wife, Teresa.
For five years now, the couple have been taking care of people afflicted with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in their home in Paranaque City and their farm in this Rizal town. Childless, the Ecarmas said they have been "treating the AIDS patients like our own children."
To accommodate his "growing family," Ecarma decided to develop and turn their supposed-to-be retirement place in Barangay Halayhayin here into a haven for AIDS patients. The Ecarma Wellness Center is now home to four patients with full-blown AIDS who are undergoing "rehabilitation" without paying a single cent.
Ecarma's involvement with AIDS victims happened serendipitously.
In October 1998, while he was trying to convince officials of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) to allow AIDS patients to try his narra tea concoction, he came across Rey, an HIV patient.