Anti-Smoking Ban

MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte, who has overseen a deadly campaign to

eradicate drug use in the Philippines, has now ordered a strict public ban on smoking
and called on citizens to help the local authorities apprehend smokers.

The executive order, signed this week and made public on Thursday, forbids the use of
tobacco, including electronic cigarettes, in all public spaces, even sidewalks. It also
prohibits anyone under 18 from “using, selling or buying cigarettes or tobacco
products.”

More than a quarter of Filipinos smoke, according to a 2015 World Health Organization
report, including 11 percent of minors.

The nationwide measure, known as Executive Order 26, is similar to the near universal
smoking ban Mr. Duterte put in place in Davao City in 2002, when he was the city’s
mayor. A former smoker, Mr. Duterte quit cigarettes and drinking decades ago, when he
was found to have two rare conditions, Barrett’s esophagus and Buerger’s disease.

According to the new order, tobacco cannot be sold within 100 meters, or about 330
feet, of schools, playgrounds or anywhere children might gather. Municipalities must
also designate smoking areas that are far from these places, and away from elevators,
stairwells, gas stations, health centers and wherever food is prepared. “No smoking”
signs are to be posted in all public places.

The order also called on civilians to join a “Smoke Free Task Force to help carry out the
provisions of this order” and apprehend and charge violators.

Calling for citizens to enforce the ban raises the specter of vigilantes’ carrying out their
own interpretation of Mr. Duterte’s strict prohibitions, as was reported during his
tenure as mayor of Davao dating to the 1980s.

Since taking office last year, Mr. Duterte has overseen a brutal antidrug campaign that
has killed thousands of people suspected of being drug users and dealers, often without
trial.

Gangs of vigilantes have taken seriously the president’s call to slaughter addicts. And
international observers have accused Mr. Duterte of encouraging these vigilantes and
overlooking extrajudicial killings by police officers.

Violators of the smoking ban in the Philippines could face up to four months in jail and
a fine of 5,000 pesos, around $100, the presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said on
Thursday.

Mr. Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno S. Aquino III, signed a law in 2014 requiring bold,
graphic health warnings on all cigarette packages, but studies show it has done little to
stub the vice in this country of 104 million.
The Philippines is the second-largest tobacco consumer in Southeast Asia, after
Indonesia, according to the Philippines Health Department.

Emer Rojas, a cancersurvivor and the president of the antismoking group New Vois
Association of the Philippines, said he hoped the new measure would significantly
reduce smoking in a country where it is common to see adults and children smoking on
the street.

He said the national smoking ban could also save thousands of Filipinos — smokers and
those around them, who endure secondhand smoke — from cancer and other illnesses.

“More will be saved from debilitating diseases and premature deaths, and this executive
order supports other tobacco control initiatives, such as the graphic health warning
law,” Mr. Rojas said.

Strict enforcement of a prohibition on tobacco sales to minors has been a challenge for
the government. The World Health Organization’s Global Tobacco Epidemic report in
2015 estimated that 11.8 percent of Filipinos ages 13 to 15 used tobacco. Small
neighborhood stores in the Philippines commonly sell single cigarettes even to minors,
who often say they are running errands for their elders.

In its report, the W.H.O. said higher taxes on tobacco products should accompany
antismoking laws. It said that only a few governments appropriately taxed tobacco
products, a “proven, low-cost measure to curb demand.”

The W.H.O. estimates that the average pack of 20 cigarettes costs almost 27 pesos (54
cents) in the Philippines, with more than 74 percent of that attributed to taxes.

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The Executive Order (EO) on the no-
smoking policy in public places is sitting on President Rodrigo Duterte's desk,
awaiting his signature.

But why does the country need an Executive Order for a public smoking ban?

There's already a law in the Philippines banning smoking in public places —

Republic Act 9211 or The Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003 — and the
Philippines has been a signatory to a tobacco control treaty for more than a
decade.

According to lawyer Jim Asturias of Health Justice Philippines — an NGO

focusing on overlapping issues of health and law, and public health policy —
the Executive Order is necessary to address certain gray areas, including the
definition of "public places" and the kinds of tobacco products that will be
banned.
"If the President will indeed follow Davao ordinance it will also cover shishas,
electronic device systems, e-cigarettes," he said.

EO empowers LGUs
Department of Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial said the executive order was
patterned after Davao City's anti-smoking ordinance, which was implemented
when Duterte was still the mayor of the city.

According to Ubial, once Duterte signs the executive order, local government
units should outline penalties for violators.

"It's an EO so it's just directive for all national and local to implement it. But
finer guidelines and sanctions will be in local ordinances," she said.

Once the President signs the EO, smoking cigarettes, tobacco, shisha
(waterpipe), e-cigarettes, or similar devices will be prohibited in public places,
including in public vehicles, nationwide.

Smoking will be prohibited in all public outdoor spaces, enclosed and partially
enclosed public spaces, accommodation and entertainment establishments,
and work places.

The no-smoking policy will also cover drivers, conductors, and passengers of
public utility vehicles.

Ubial said designated smoking areas will be allowed in places where the
public will not be exposed to second-hand smoke.

The smoking areas will have highly visible signage — alongside a graphic
depiction of the negative effects of smoking to one's health and also to those
inhaling the second hand smoke.

"Designate a smoking area away from the public. At the back of a hotel, at the
parking area," Ubial said on Tuesday.

Ubial hopes Duterte signs the EO before the month ends, or before the full
implementation of the graphic health warning law this November

Davao City's smoking ban has been recognized by the World Health
Organization as an effective smoke-free order in an urban setting. WHO noted
that Davao's smoking policy "demonstrates that smoke-free laws can work in
the Philippines."

CNN Philippines' correspondent Pia Bonalos, digital producer Lara Tan

contributed to this report.