‘Go slow on smoke ban’

Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon has appealed to mayors nationwide to defer the crafting of their respective smoking ordinances until an inter-agency body has come up with the implementing rules and regulations of the recently enacted Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003.

Gordon’s statement came in the wake of complaints from bar and restaurant owners as well as those in the entertainment and service industries that their sales have started to fall because of the confusion brought about by the new law.

A good number of their tourist patrons, it was noted, shy away from establishments that do not anymore allow smoking even in designated areas.

"Thus, I am appealing to all the mayors to defer the crafting of their respective smoking ordinance and wait for the inter-agency body to come up with the rules and regulations on smoking," Gordon said recently in a radio interview.