MANILA, Philippines - Cigarette smoking is now strictly prohibited in all public areas in Caloocan City after Mayor Enrico Echiverri formally signed an executive order on the strict implementation of a city ordinance which bans cigarette smoking.

In a summit conference held at the Bulwagan Katipunan in Caloocan City last Tuesday, Echiverri appealed the public to support City Ordinance No. 0447, series of 2008.
The mayor noted that he quit smoking just three months ago. "Pinag-aralan ko kung anu ang makukuha ko sa paninigarilyo, pakiramdam ko ay 32 years old, healthy ang feeling (I studied what would I get from smoking I felt like I’m 32 years old, I feel healthy)," the mayor said.

Echiverri said the city will create a task force to enforce the ordinance.

The city council quoted scientific studies and statistical data showing that second-hand smoke poses serious health hazards to persons who are in the presence of smokers.
The council also cited the latest survey of the World Health Organization (WHO) that about 3.5-million to 4 million people all over the world die each year from smoking and inhaling secondary smoke.

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino, who was the guest in the summit conference, lauded the city government, noting that Caloocan is the first city to launch such an anti-smoking campaign in Metro Manila and probably in the whole country in support of the Tobacco Regulation Act (RA 9211).

“I am very pleased to have Caloocan support the Bloomberg Project: Enforcement of the 100 Smoke-Free Environment Policy in Metro Manila," the MMDA chairman said.

Dr. Ulysses Dorotheo, director, of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance, said an estimated 1.2-billion people smoke worldwide. He said people smoke because of "addiction to nicotine."

Dorotheo presented some 100 slides showing different personalities, most of whom were popular persons in the United States, who died of cancer allegedly due to smoking.

Two cancer patients who were allegedly afflicted with cancer in the larynx also testified during the summit about their condition after they were diagnosed to have been afflicted with cancer in the larynx allegedly due to smoking.

Atty. Rowena "Rowe" Daroy Morales, of the UP College of Law Foundation, said their foundation is training key officials of local government units in implementing RA 9211.