By Roel Amazona/Philippine News Agency
TACLOBAN CITY — The Department of Health (DOH) has urged the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials to be active in supporting the national government’s anti-smoking campaign.
Charisse Daya, DOH Regional Tobacco Control Program coordinator, said they selected the youth who are the target of tobacco industries in product promotion.
“We can tap the SK officials through their president for the training of peer educators who will form an organization of youth against tobacco smoking,” Daya told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Thursday.
Dean Aaron Lauron, Carigara SK Federation president, said that he is open to the idea and they are willing to help the health department in the enforcement of anti-smoking law.
A self-confessed cigarette smoker, Lauron shared that he started smoking when he was in high school when influenced by friends. He used to consume two packs of cigarettes daily. Currently, Lauron only smokes one stick a day.
“This is a slow process. I’m doing it slowly,” Lauron said. As a leader of the youth sector, he plans to launch a program raising awareness on the bad effects of smoking.
Lauron said that even with the enactment of the law, smoking is still rampant in some towns because local government units are not strictly implementing it.
“We are much willing to help in achieving the goal of making our town a smoke-free with the help of DOH to attain this making into a reality,” Lauron added.
Daya admitted that some local governments found it challenging to enforce the anti-smoking law as they consider the move as political suicide.
“This is actually not political suicide, because there are more non-smoking voters. In fact, if I may cite an example, there was a mayoralty candidate who received a majority vote for implementing the anti-smoking ordinance in his town, even receiving support from his political rival,” Daya shared.
Jonathan Ramirez, of Smoke-Free Squad Tacloban and Leyte National High School Supreme Student Council president, has appealed to local governments and national government agencies to ensure the legacy of a healthy and smoke-free environment for the youth.
“Smoking does not only affect our health as it also destroys our environment because cigarette filter is not easy to dissolve,” Ramirez said.
Daya shared the DOH is strengthening its partnership with the Department of Education in the implementation of policy for the smoking ban as it is noticed that there are still vendors who sell cigarettes near school premises.
The law prohibits the sale of tobacco products within 100 meters of schools, playgrounds, and other facilities frequented by minors.
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