Philippines: Govt Asked to Reject WHO Plan to Reduce Tobacco Output

Source from:  Business Mirror (ph)  10/29/2012

LOCAL tobacco growers have asked the government to reject a World Health Organization (WHO) proposed agenda that threatens to displace close to a million tobacco farmers in the country.

The Philippine Tobacco Growers’ Association (PTGA) said in a statement that some of the current wordings of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) have gone astray from the FCTC’s original intent.
 
The group said the original intent of the FCTC’s Article 17 was to provide "technical and financial assistance to aid the economic transition of tobacco growers and workers?as a decline in tobacco production consumption resulted in lower demand for our crop."
 
"However, the proposals under consideration currently represent a departure from this original goal as they seek to artificially reduce the supply of tobacco without providing growers any viable alternatives to support their families. This is despite estimates that demand for tobacco will increase in coming years," the PTGA said.
 
Local tobacco growers joined their counterparts worldwide in asking government leaders to reject the WHO proposals.
 
The International Tobacco Growers’ Association (ITGA) used the October 29 celebration of the first-ever World Tobacco Growers’ Day in intensifying lobbying against the FCTC.
 
The group said the FCTC threatens the livelihood of more than 30 million tobacco farmers and farmworkers.
 
"As we celebrate the benefit our farms bring to our communities, we are also asking our leaders to stand with us, to hear our voices and give us the opportunity to work together to protect our way of life," said Asuncion Lopez, spokesman for PTGA.
 
"Should these draconian measures become law, they’ll have a dire impact on the livelihoods of 840,416 Filipino tobacco growers and dependents and the contribution we give to the local economy," he said.
 
FCTC’s Articles 17 and 18 ban　minimum support prices and leaf auctions; restrict production by regulating the seasons when tobacco can be grown; reduce the area allocated for tobacco farming; ban technical support for tobacco farmers; and dismantle all bodies connecting growers with governments.
 
These proposals will be discussed and voted on at the Fifth Conference of the Parties (COP5) in Seoul, Korea on November 12  to 17, 2012. All 175 countries who signed the FCTC are eligible to attend the conference and vote.
 
"The FCTC has not heard the voice of growers and has gone off track in pursuing absurd proposals that are contrary to its original mandate," said Saturnino Distor, president of the PTGA. "Today we simply ask to be heard and to become part of the solution."
 
"Tobacco growers of the world will not stand idly by and watch as their fates are sealed," said Distor. "Our government leaders must understand that these issues will have consequences not only for us but for the communities we live in." Enditem