Cigarette Maker Wants IRR on New Packaging Released

Source from:  Business MirrorSep 09/18/2015

Cigarette manufacturer British American Tobacco (Philippines) Ltd. (BAT) has urged the interagency committee formed by the new Graphic Health Warnings (GHW) law to issue the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the law for a smoother transition to the new packaging mandated by the GHW law for tobacco products.

BAT said that while the IRR is not a prerequisite for the GHW law to take effect by March 3, 2016, it could clarify the various technical details and specifications that are not adequately clear in the GHW law.

"BAT is committed to fully comply with the GHW law. We are exerting our utmost effort to ensure that all our packs contain the proper graphic health warnings, as issued by the Department of Health (DOH), by the implementation date that the law had mandated," said Robert Eugenio, BAT head of Legal and External Affairs.

"We have written a letter to the interagency committee to expedite the issuance of the guidelines. That will be beneficial to all stakeholders, including the relevant government agencies that will enforce the law, as it will enable better preparation for the transition and better monitoring of compliance," he added.

The DOH issued the first batch of GHW templates in late October last year, together with Administrative Order 2014-0037, which contained guidelines on the use of the templates. However, due to some revisions that had to be made, the DOH issued a revised set of templates last March, effectively pushing back the implementation date to March 3, 2016.

The newer DOH order, however, only covered the guidelines on the use of the templates on tobacco product packaging, and did not touch on any other aspects of the GHW law, which could be clarified by the issuance of an IRR.

During the Senate deliberations on the GHW Law, that some 240 Filipinos die every day due to tobacco-related diseases, and that according to a survey, 77 percent of Filipinos believe that putting pictures of smoking-related diseases on cigarette packs will help decrease smoking. Enditem