QUITTING SMOKING ?would be an excellent demonstration of leadership by example.?

This message came from Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral as she urged president-apparent Benigno ?Noynoy? Aquino III to make good on his promise to kick his nicotine habit.

?Did he not say he?s going to stop smoking once he becomes president?? Cabral said Saturday.

If Aquino quits smoking, ?he will save not just himself but millions of our countrymen from the many harmful effects of tobacco on health,? Cabral, now in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, told the Inquirer.

Like Cabral, nongovernment antitobacco groups said the Liberal Party standard-bearer could make a difference by saying goodbye to his vice.

The same NGOs also urged Aquino to ?do a Barack Obama.?

Like Aquino, the US president is also a smoker. But Obama pushed for stricter regulations for tobacco products that are known to contain chemicals causing cancer and other killer diseases.

Sometime in March, Aquino said in a TV interview: ?Sa vices, I assume ?yung smoking ko will eventually go. Hopefully ma-weather natin ?yung pressures with the job that I can give it up sooner rather than later.?

Late in the campaign, Aquino said, however, that ?at this time, giving it up will add more pressure, which I think is unnecessary.?

?With regard to my smoking, did I ever pretend that I?m quitting? Did I advocate anybody joining me there?? he said.

Late last year, Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay gave Aquino some ?brotherly advice,? saying ?it?s not appealing to the eyes to see a leader smoking.?

Binay added that it would be a long and hard battle against cigarettes, but the results would be rewarding to Aquino?s health.

Aquino supporters have reportedly swamped a new Facebook page to offer words of advice to their president-apparent, telling him to quit smoking.

Cabral has repeatedly said the Department of Health would continue its advocacy against smoking.

The DOH, however, does not favor a total ban on tobacco use in the country.

According to Cabral, ?it impinges on the rights of human beings to choose to die or not to die from diseases caused by smoking.?

?All we can do is tell them the facts ? This is what we would do if we were you and we hope you?ll do the same thing,? she said.

The DOH is set to issue an administrative order requiring tobacco manufacturers to print ?graphic picture warnings? against tobacco use on cigarette packs.

Cabral said she hopes to ?convince the smoking public, especially the youth, that smoking is really bad for the health.?

The Philippine College of Chest Physicians (PCCP) disclosed that at least four lung diseases?lung cancer, TB, pneumonia and emphysema?were among the Top 10 major causes of death in the country.

During the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), held in December in Cancun, Mexico, delegates from over 160 countries, including the Philippines, expressed serious concern over tobacco use which they said ?remains legal although it kills more than five million people each year, including 1.3 million who die of lung cancer.?

?Smokers have twice more risks of dying of tuberculosis. Tobacco smoke increases the risk of pneumonia, flu and meningococcal meningitis, among others. Smoking also adversely affects the health of people who are exposed to its effects secondhand,? said a FIRS statement.

The 2009 Global Adult Tobacco Survey, conducted by the World Health Organization, disclosed, among other things, that more than 17 million Filipinos smoke regularly.