Philippines: Pia Wants to Intervene in Tobacco Case before SC

Source from:  ABS CBN News 04/12/2013

Sen. Pia Cayetano filed with the Supreme Court (SC) a petition-in-intervention on Thursday so that she may participate in the pending case filed by the Philippine Tobacco Institute (PTI) against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Health (DOH) that seeks to define "the extent of FDA's authority to regulate tobacco and tobacco products."

PTI is an organization whose members include Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing, Inc., Fortune Tobacco Corp., La Suerte Cigar and Cigarette Factory, among others.

"I sponsored this law. I chaired the Bicameral Conference Committee that deliberated on this. The clear consensus of the legislators when they passed this law was to strengthen the FDA's authority over all products affecting health, including tobacco. No one, not even the tobacco, can deny that tobacco and tobacco products adversely affect public health," Cayetano said.

Health advocates also called on the high court to affirm the FDA's power to regulate tobacco and tobacco products.

"240 Filipinos die due to tobacco-related diseases every single day. Many see this as just a statistic; they think that even if they smoke, this kind of think cannot happen to them," cancer survivor Emer Rojas said in a statement. Enditem