Anti-smoking TF calls out propaganda

THE SMOKE-Free Baguio Task Force has called out what it calls a black propaganda to counter the gains of the city’s anti-smoking and vaping campaign.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong questioned the information materials being circulated in stores in the city which contain misleading information that appear to contradict some of the provisions of the city’s SmokeFree Ordinance or Ordinance No. 34-2017.

The Department of Trade and Industry Consumer Protection and Advocacy Bureau (DTI-CPAB) which along with the Philippine Tobacco Institute was mentioned in the posters as one of the references disowned the materials.

“Please be informed that the Inter-Agency Committee on Tobacco (IAC-Tobacco), DTI – CPAB as Secretariat and the Philippine Tobacco Institute as one of the members, had not issued the information material entitled ’Karapatan ng Bawat Tindahan sa Pagbenta’,” DTI-CPAB Director IV Domingo Tolentino Jr. stated in a memorandum dated Oct. 30 to DTI-Baguio-Benguet Provincial Director Freda Gawisan.

The poster contained the supposed “rights” of the store owners in selling cigarettes with one of them showing the steps to be taken in the event that the establishment is rounded up by law enforcers of the local government unit for supposed violation of the law on cigarette selling.

Another poster flashed the regulations under Republic Act 9211also known as the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003, an omnibus law regulating smoking in public places, tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and sales restrictions, among other requirements and Executive Order No. 26 entitled “Providing for the Establishment of Smoke-Free Environments in Public and Enclosed Places.”

The posted regulations included provisions where contradictions exist between the national and the city’s local ordinance particularly the rules on cigarette retail which the city’s measure expressly prohibits.

In one of the posters, store owners were directed to the DTI-CPAB and the PTI in case of concerns on confiscation of goods, prohibition of sale, payment of penalty, threats or removal of posters.

The city through the office of task force member Councilor Joel Alangsab took up the matter with Gawisan to validate if the advertisements were authentic and sanctioned by the department and Gawisan through DTI-CAR Regional Director Myrna Pablo facilitated the inquiry to Tolentino.

Magalong expressed satisfaction over the accomplishments and directions of the city’s smoking campaign

and assured he will not allow any modifications to the local ordinance currently being enforced in the city.

Photo by Redjie Melvic Cawis INSPECTION. A member of the Anti - Smoke Free Baguio Task Force continuously conducts inspection of the various business establishments including sari-sari stores in the city of Baguio to ensure that cigarettes are not being sold near schools as mandated by the anti-smoking ordinance of the city.