In line with the observance of the “No Tobacco Use” this month, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Thursday intensified its enforcement of the no-smoking policy by fielding special teams to catch employees smoking within the agency’s main office in Makati City.

“We must be strict in our anti-smoking regulation, otherwise no one will take us seriously. We want the MMDA to become a model government agency in terms of compliance with this CSC policy,” MMDA Chairman Oscar Inocentes said, referring to CSC Memorandum Circular No. 17, Series of 2009 prohibiting smoking in government premises, buildings, and grounds.

Inocentes instructed the Health, Public Safety and Environmental Protection Office headed by Dr. Maria Rosarita Siasoco to coordinate with the administrative department of the MMDA in penalizing employees caught violating this smoking prohibition.

Inocentes stressed that while the CSC policy may be harsh, it is the constitutional duty of the government to take care of the health and well-being of state workers and the people who transact with government offices.

“We have been reminding over and over again that cigarette smoking kills. The government has long been campaigning against this addictive and wasteful vice,” the MMDA chief, himself a non-smoker, said.

Siasoco said they will discreetly take photographs of MMDA employees in the act of smoking in the agency’s premises and submit this evidence to the administration unit for proper action.

“They cannot even smoke in the toilets. This is also prohibited, and we will not allow that. We have personnel going around to apprehend you,” Siasoco warned MMDA employees.

Under the CSC memorandum, erring government workers are to be given a stern warning on the first offense; suspension from work on the second, and dismissal from the service on the third and succeeding offenses.

Mandated by Proclamation No. 183, the observance of National No-Smoking Month aims to raise public awareness on the ill effects of smoking as well as to encourage smokers to give up the habit.

Siasoco said at least five employees are being investigated after being caught smoking inside their offices.

Starting July, the MMDA, through Siasoco’s office, will start the implementation of its two-year project, “Enforcement of a 100% Smoke Free Environment Policy in Metro Manila,” aiming to make Metro Manila a 100 percent smoke-free region by 2012.

The project was made possible though the P9.5-million grant the New York-based Bloomberg Philantrophies has given the MMDA.