Nationwide Smoking Ban signed by President Duterte (from the Davao Playbook)

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed Executive Order. 26, which imposes a nationwide ban on smoking in all public places.

 

Former President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, his smoking is openly known to the country (photo taken from the abs-cbn.news website)

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdia said in a press conference that the Executive Order No. 26 was signed by the President last May 16, 2017. The executive order will take effect 60 days after publication in a national newspaper. 

The President who  was the mayor of Davao City for more than two decades have implemented the same total smoking ban in public places. 

It was in the 1^st quarter of this year that he asked Department of Health Secretary Paulyn Ubila to draft the executive order that will implement the smoking ban in the country.

There will also be a smoke-free task force in all cities and municipalities, and with  members of the Philippine National Police would be directed to help each other in carrying out the provisions of the order.

The E.O. is based from known scientific pieces of evidences that has established that tobacco consumption and exposure to cigarette smoke cause death, disease and disability; impair health and lead to social, economic and environmental consequences; and place burdens on families, on the poor, and on national and local health systems.

Smoking ban will be implemented in schools, universities and recreational facilities for minors.

Smoking will also be prohibited in enclosed public places and public conveyances- examples of which are elevators, airplanes, ships, jeepneys, buses, taxicabs, trains, light rail transits, tricycles and other similar vehicles (whether stationary or in motion).

Minors are banned from smoking or buying cigarettes or any other tobacco products.

Selling or distributing tobacco in a school, public playground, youth hostels and recreational facilities for minors, including those frequented by minors, or within 100 meters from any point of the perimeter of these places.

Significant numbers of Filipinos die each year with a tobacco related diseases such as smoke, heart disease, emphysema, various cancers and nicotine addiction.

The Philippines is a signatory to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control , which gives priority to the right to protect public health and promote measures of tobacco control.