BAGUIO CITY — The city government is training its sights on smoking city government workers in a bid to convince them to cease or at least minimize tobacco consumption, the city human resource officer told Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Monday.
Atty. Augustine Laban, City Human Resource Officer, said they will be doing an inventory of the actual number of “smokers” in the city government.
“It’s a plan but we do not have an inventory yet of the actual number of self-proclaimed smokers,” he said.
The city, being the implementer of Ordinance No. 34 series of 2017, needs to be the first to comply with the rules.
He said out of the 1,509 employees, there are 1,209 regular civil service employees. The others are either co-terminus, casual or job order employees.
He reiterated that it is not really to make them stop, but the program the city is planning is to convince them to quit smoking.
Anti-smoking task force head Dr. Donnabel Tubera, in a separate interview, said they are encouraging “smoking” government employees to undergo the smoke cessation program for compliance with the city’s smoking ban ordinance.
Tubera said the effort is to curb the chronic smoking problem, adding that “smoking addiction is one lifestyle vice that often causes health problems,” which can be prevented.
The city government started implementing its Smoke-Free Baguio ordinance in May 2017, after the passage of the local ordinance – in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order 26, which provides for the establishment of smoke-free environments in public and enclosed places.
Baguio’s Ordinance No. 34 series of 2017 designates certain smoking areas, which must be located in open space outside a building, with no permanent or temporary roof or walls, and not located in or within 10 meters from entrances and exits of any establishment.
Tubera said Baguio’s anti-smoking task force had apprehended 1,384 violators as of May 2018, a year after the ordinance took effect.
Aside from the Executive Order and the smoking ban ordinance, the task force is also using the Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999, which declares the right of every citizen to breathe clean air, and prohibits smoking inside enclosed public places including public vehicles and other means of transport.
Under the local ordinance, violators are slapped with a fine ranging from PHP1,000 to PHP3,000 for the first to third offense, respectively.
An establishment found violating the ordinance is fined PHP2,000, PHP3,000, and PHP5000 for the first to third offense, plus revocation of business license. Most of the establishments nabbed are operating at the central business district.
“We urge everyone to join this bandwagon in Baguio, especially our government employees now that we have stabilized the implementation and enforcement of our ordinance,” Tubera said. (Pamela Mariz Geminiano/PNA)
