MANILA, Philippines – Five former health secretaries Monday asked the Supreme Court (SC) to allow the implementation of a Department of Health (DoH) administrative order requiring the use of graphic picture warnings on the packages of all tobacco products, especially images of rotting lungs and throat cancer.

The five former DoH secretaries – Drs. Esperanza Cabral, Francisco Duque III, Alberto Romualdez Jr., Jaime Galvez-Tan, and Alfredo Bengzon – filed with the High Court a motion seeking to intervene in the case of tobacco firm Mighty Corp. against Administrative Order (AO) 2010-0013 issued by Cabral in May last year.

AO 2010-003 requires tobacco manufacturers to replace the written warnings currently featured on their cigarette packs with picture warnings to show terrifying images of the damage smoking can cause.

It also prohibits manufacturers from using misleading words on cigarette packs like “mild,” “light,” “ultra-light,” and “low tar.”

Cabral, Duque, Romualdez, Galvez-Tan, and Bengzon, all medical doctors, said they have witnessed the devastating effects of tobacco use on the health and well-being of Filipinos whom they served in their decades of practice.

Tobacco-related diseases – stroke, cancer, heart attacks, tuberculosis, among others – comprise seven out of the 10 primary causes of mortality in the country, they said.

Both Cabral and Duque served under the Arroyo administration, while Romualdez, Galvez-Tan, and Bengzon were health secretaries under the Estrada, Ramos, and first Aquino administration, respectively.

“We believe that the Supreme Court will let us join in this fight for the truth and support the DoH to do its job,” Cabral told reporters during the filing of the motion.

Cigarette companies were given only until last September to comply with AO 2010-0013, but instead they took the DoH to court by filing suits in the cities of Marikina, Pasig, Parañaque, Tanauan, and Malolos.

Mighty Corp., which produces “sweetened” cigarettes and American- blended tobacco products, was able to secure from the Malolos City Regional Trial Court (RTC) an injunction order restraining the DoH from implementing AO 2010-0013.

The DoH, now represented by Secretary Enrique Ona, had questioned the order of the Malolos court before the SC.

The Lucio Tan-led Fortune Tobacco Corp. also managed to secure an injunction order in Marikina, which the DoH has actively contested.

In asking permission from the SC to intervene in the case of Mighty Corp., Cabral and company cited the “transcendental importance and far-reaching implications” of the case, considering that it revolves around a governmental regulation to help combat the deadly tobacco epidemic in the Philippines.

They said the enforcement of AO 2010-0013 would “not only reverse the steady increase of smoking prevalence in the Philippines, but also hep save the lives and health of millions of Filipinos and defray the devastating economic costs caused by tobacco consumption and exposure.”

Cabral’s group also cited some alarming figures which compel the government to impose drastic measures to curb smoking.
They noted that at least 35,000 Filipinos die every year due to tobacco-related diseases.

The Philippines is considered as having one of the highest numbers of smokers in the world, ranking 9th and 16th, respectively, in the male and female adult smoking population, they added.

The 2009 Global Adult Tobacco Survey by the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals that 17.3- million Filipinos are current tobacco smokers and about 23.9 million are exposed to smoke at home daily.

In 2003, health care costs and productivity losses from smoking-related death and disease amounted to more than $6 billion.

The five former DoH chiefs said it has been proven that the implementation of picture-based warnings on cigarette packs has made a huge impact on smoking prevalence and behavior in countries worldwide.

International studies show that pictorial warnings effectively communicate health risks and motivate smokers to quit and protect others from second-hand smoke, they said.

Cabral said the primary objective of the administrative order was to prevent smokers, children, and young people from taking on the habit.

“We simply want them to be informed of what smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke does to their bodies, and to stop them from being the replacement clients of the tobacco industry since the current users are already dying or have already died due to smoking,” she said.

For his part, Galvez-Tan said there is no reason for the DoH not to put the picture warnings since there is no contest that tobacco is “anti-health.”

He said AO 2010-0013 is in compliance with the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the first health treaty that aims to prevent and protect people from the deadly effects of tobacco, and from the deception and intervention of the tobacco industry.

The treaty was ratified by the Philippine Senate in 2005.

“Our neighboring countries – Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia – have already put picture warnings on the cigarette packs before the 2008 WHO deadline, the country is failing not just in its commitment to the health treaty, but in its responsibility to provide life-saving health information to its citizens,” Galvez- Tan stressed.