GMA urged to adopt stiffer tobacco policies

In an unprecedented move, private and public groups led by the Department of Health and the Tobacco-Free Philippines Foundation have coalesced to urge President Arroyo to come up with strict policies and regulations on tobacco use.

The groups cited the heavy economic and health costs of smoking in asking the President to initiate stiffer tobacco regulations. Smoking kills four million people annually worldwide, 20,000 of them Filipinos, and causes lung cancer in 3,318 people in the Philippines.

"Tobacco is also bad economics. While the (Philippine) government earned P21.4 billion from the sale of tobacco, it spent P46.4 billion in healthcare for Filipinos suffering from tobacco-related diseases, losing precious revenues that could have been used to help uplift the lives of Filipinos," they stressed.

Earlier, the Tobacco-Free Philippines Foundation questioned the Department of Trade and Industry’s move to allow Philip Morris, the world’s largest cigarette manufacturer, to set up a $300-million production plant in the country.

Dr. Daniel Tan, president of the foundation, said the entry of the American firm would increase the number of cigarette smokers in the country as it is expected to engage in aggressive marketing and promotion campaign to promote its products.

In the US and other countries, the company has a history of deliberately targeting children and women in its advertising and promotion campaign.

Besides the DOH-Tobacco Control Secretariat and the Tobacco-Free Philippines Foundation, among the organizations that banded together in the campaign are ABS-CBN Foundation’s Bantay Kalikasan, American College of Chest Physicians-Philippine chapter, Asian Vascular Society, Bronchology Association of the Philippines, Center for Alternative Development Initiatives, Doctors Against Smoking, Framework Convention Alliance-Philippines, Girl Scouts of the Philippines, Have a Heart for the Child Foundation;

Heart Foundation of the Philippines, Institute of Health Policy and Development Studies-UP-NIH, Institute for Studies on Diabetes Foundation-UERM, Lung Center of the Philippines; National Asthma Movement, Organization of Public Health Educators, Philippine Academy of Family Physicians, Philippine Association of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgeons, Philippine Cancer Society, Philippine Dental Association, Philippine Heart Association, Philippine Heart Center, Philippine Pediatric Society, Public Health Initiatives, and the Yosi Kadiri Organization.