Philippine Does Make Cigarette Packs with Graphic Warnings … for Export

Source from:  InterAksyon.com 08/20/2013

Philippine cigarette makers do make packages with graphic health warnings, one of the requirements of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, of which the country is a signatory. The catch is, these packages are all for export.

Ironically, as a signatory to the FCTC, the country should have been placing graphic warnings on all cigarette packs since 2008, Dr. Ma. Encarnita Limpin, executive director of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines, said.

"We have been advocating for almost a decade to strictly enforce tobacco control policies in the country especially since we are a signatory to the FCTC. Unfortunately, when it comes to graphic health warnings, we are far behind our Asian neighbors," Limpin said in an interview.

After next year, we may, in fact, become the only Southeast Asian country still without graphic warnings on cigarette packaging.

"Indonesia, of all countries, by next year will also have picture warning.  So tayo ang last, if ever, na mag-picture warning.  GHW is something that our legislators should have in place," Dr. Ulysses Dorotheo, project director of the Thailand-based Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance, pointed out.

"Singapore was the first to implement GHW in 2004, followed by Thailand in 2005, and then Malaysia and Brunei. This year, Vietnam is expected to also adopt the strategy," he said.

Ironically, while Indonesia has signed the FCTC, it has not ratified the treaty. Instead, it came up with local legislation requiring graphic warnings.

Limpin rued that Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp. and Mighty Corp. have plants in the Philippines that manufacture cigarettes with GHW for export to Thailand, Brunei and Singapore.

Under Article 11 of the FCTC, which is a global treaty initiated by the World Health Organization to reduce tobacco consumption, countries or territories that are parties to the treaty are required to "implement large, rotating health warnings on all tobacco product packaging and labeling" to raise awareness about the dangers of smoking.

 "If we only met our deadline in 2008 and if our legislators could have exercised strong political will to enact GHW, this could have served as a very strong complement to our recently passed Sin Tax Law," she said.

Tobacco lobby

According to lawyer Irene Reyes, managing director of the Health Justice Philippines, efforts to put graphic warnings in place are continuously being blocked by the tobacco industry.

Reyes said in 2010, the Department of Health issued Administrative Order 2010-0013, which mandates graphic health information and bans misleading descriptors on cigarette packaging.

She said the validity of the order was questioned by the tobacco industry by filing various petitions in different regional trial courts questioning the authority of the DOH to issue the edict while invoking the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003, which requires only text warnings.

The petitions were filed by Fortune Tobacco Corp. (Marikina); JTI Philippines (Pasig); Mighty Corporation (Malolos); Telengtan Brothers or La Suerte Cigar and Cigarette Factory (Paranaque); and PMFTC (Tanauan), the joint venture corporation established by Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing, Inc. and Fortune Tobacco. Enditem