"I don't think they asked the Virgin Mary for permission to use her picture. That's fortune tobacco... and they're still doing it...," Dr. Eulysses Dorotheo of SEATCA.
Slowly, the Philippines is beginning to realize the fact that tobacco is an expensive killer.
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Dr. Ulysses Dorotheo of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) said Filipinos, compared to five to ten years ago, are more aware about the negative effects of smoking in public.
Dorotheo said smokers are not allowed in malls, cinemas, public transport and other public places. Some cities have actually banned smoking in public, and smoking in work places are slowly being prohibited.
"That's the level we're at now. I think we've matured in the past five to ten years. Maybe in another five to ten years, we can hope to achieve things that are currently available in Singapore or Thailand, where the awareness is much higher," Dorotheo said.
To get there, Dorotheo said the Philippine government should make the basic step: increase taxes on tobacco, which is an effective way of making cigarettes less accessible to the youth and the poor.
Smoking prevalence in Singapore and Thailand dropped after their governments decided to increase tobacco taxes, according to SEATCA and World Health Organization (WHO) studies.
A "report card" on tobacco use and control by SEATCA and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance-Philippines (FCAP) estimates 35,845 Filipinos die every year of smoking-related diseases, including lung cancer, cerebrovascular disease, coronary artery disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Based on this figure, 179,225 Filipino smokers will die in five years or 358,450 people in 10 years.
RP has made the first step
Dorotheo said the first big step being done by the government is the Department of Finance's plan to impose a single tax rate of P14.00 per cigarette pack, which is expected to bring higher revenues for the government.
"It seems like our finance people plan to impose a single tax rate for tobacco, which is the first step," he said.
A 1999 World Bank report, Curing The Tobacco Epidemic: Governments and the Economics of Tobacco Control, said "the most effective way to deter children from taking up smoking is to increase taxes on tobacco."
It said high prices prevent the youth from starting the bad habit, while those who already smoke reduce their consumption.
A pack of Marlboro in the Philippines costs only P27.00 in wholesale markets and P40.00 in retail. If Congress passes the P14-single rate cigarette tax, it will increase the price of Marlboro cigarettes from P39.00 up to P55 a pack.
If tobacco control advocates would have their way, they would propose even higher tax rates so that cigarettes will become unaffordable for the youth and the low-income smokers.
Government must take the lead
Dorotheo said the government seems ready to lead the tobacco control campaign.
He said SEATCA and other anti-tobacco organizations are optimistic the Philippine government will beat the five-year deadline for the full implementation of the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world's first international public health treaty that became effective February 2005.
The Philppines, as a signatory to the treaty, ratified the FCTC's implementation June 2005.
"We are a signatory to the FCTC and it requires certain deadlines. The first deadline is the effective health warnings on cigarette packs," he said.
Article 11 of the FCTC requires signatories to require effective health warnings that should cover half of the entire cigarette package, which may include pictures or pictograms. The deadline is September 2008.
The second deadline, which has a timeline of five years starting from the ratification of the treaty or in 2010, is the passage of laws that would ban advertising, promotions, and sponsorship of tobacco products and companies.
"We're halfway there. We have not banned promotions, we still have limited sponsorship. We can actually go the extra step," Dorotheo said.
Dorotheo said SEATCA and FCAP, with the help of WHO and the Department of Health, will try to convince the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to join tobacco control efforts.
He said the DA would have to look for ways on how to help tobacco farmers shift to other crops. He said the agriculture department can actually give technical trainings to tobacco farmers and teach them how to grow vegetable or rice.
The DSWD, meanwhile, can provide better jobs or livelihood to cigarette street vendors and poor smokers.
Time running out
On Friday, tobacco control advocate FCAP launched the "death clock" in Manila, which will act as a reminder to lawmakers and government officials that time is running out on the passage of the highly-opposed House Bill 3364 or the Picture-Based Health Warning filed by Samar Rep. Paul Daza last December 2007.
If passed into law, the measure will mandate the use of picture warnings instead of text warnings on cigarettes, which have been found to be ineffective.
The bill has a counterpart in Senate Bill 2377 filed by Sen. Pia Cayetano.
On Sunday, FCAP will hold the "run for your life" marathon to push for the passage of the two bills.
The 500-participant marathon will be led by Noelle Wenceslao, the first Filipino woman to reach the Everest summit, Cayetano, Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, and Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño.
The bill faces stiff opposition from legislators who are supporting tobacco industry's interests in the guise of promoting the livelihood of farmers and workers in the industry," FCAP said.
Proof
To convince policy makers, Dorotheo said they would have to produce evidence or proof that controlling tobacco can be done without affecting the livelihood of the farmers and the government's revenue.
To get scholarly evidence, health advocates have started studies on the economic side effects of the tobacco industry in the Philippines.
One of the studies, conducted by Dr. Myrna Austria, dean of the De La Salle University's College of Business and Economics, focuses on the economic and health impact of tobacco.
In a presentation at the Traders Hotel in Pasay City to tobacco stakeholders last Thursday, Austria said the share of tobacco tax revenue to the government's total tax revenue is below five percent, which is lower than the government's health expenditures on those who have smoke-related diseases.
Another study presented by Prof. Rene Rafeel Espino of the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture showed that a big majority of tobacco farmers in Ilocos region (Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Pangasinan, La Union) want to stick to tobacco farming because of its profitability, market availability and their lack of technical knowledge on growing other products.
The study, however, showed that tobacco farmers can be convinced to grow corn, which is the second main crop produced in the region.
If policy makers and local government units can actually provide the tobacco farmers a bigger market for corn, the tillers may be convinced to leave tobacco farming, Espino said.
Two more studies have yet to be finalized and will be presented to policy makers soon.
Dorotheo said he is optimistic that congressmen, senators, and high government officials will hear them and consider carefully the studies for stricter and feasible policies against tobacco in the coming years. Enditem
