Philippines Leader Signs Law for Graphic Warnings on Cigarettes

Source from:  Agence France Press, Inquirer.net  07/22/2014

On July 18, President Benigno Aquino III, who has been criticized for his own inability to quit smoking, has signed into law Republic Act 10643 or An Act to Effectively Instill Health Consciousness through Graphic Health Warnings on Tobacco Products, which requires cigarette manufacturers to print pictures depicting the ill-effects on smoking on their cigarette pack.

The law mandates that the photographs should appear on the lower portion of the front and back panels, occupying 50 percent of the packs.

DOH is to provide the template for the pictures, with 12 different versions that get changed every two years.

The Philippines has long had a conflicted attitude towards smoking, with the government trying to discourage it even as it encourages a politically powerful tobacco-growing industry.

The Philippines is the latest developing country to follow Western nations in requiring shock pictorial health warnings.

Ways to Address Selling Cigarettes by the Stick

To maximize the impact of the graphic health warning (GHW) law, the Department of Health (DOH) intends to look for ways to address the practice of many Filipinos buying cigarettes by the stick.

In an interview, DOH spokesman Lyndon Lee Suy said, "We may look for strategies on how the new law can address the 'tingi-tingi'(per stick) system in selling cigarettes.There's no definite plan yet, but what we want is to make sure the graphic health warning is seen by all, to dissuade more people from the smoking habit."

New Cigarette Law's Loophole

An anti-smoking group on Monday said the Graphic Health Warnings Law was a step forward in protecting the right to health of Filipinos but the measure had a loophole that would give tobacco firms an opportunity to undermine it.

The advocacy group Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP) said the provision mandating the Inter-Agency Committee on Tobacco (IACT) to monitor implementation of the law posed a problem.

FCAP executive director Dr. Maricar Limpin pointed out that tobacco companies, represented by the Philippine Tobacco Institute, were part of the committee.

"The only problem we see in the law is the provision where the IACT is tasked to do the monitoring," Limpin said in an interview with reporters on Monday.

"It is the tobacco companies that are being regulated and monitored for compliance with the law. How come the ones to be regulated and monitored are part of the monitoring body?" she said.

She pointed out that the Philippines ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2005, obliging the government to ensure that tobacco firms would not be part of any health policy to prevent them from meddling with it.

"Making the IACT the monitoring body gives the tobacco companies an opportunity to interfere with or undermine the Graphic Health Warnings Law. This is a violation of the FCTC," she said.

Limpin said that while the advocacy group was still studying options to plug the loophole, it was encouraging the Department of Health to take the lead in enforcing the new law. Enditem