DAVAO CITY?After seven years of outlawing cigarette smoking in public places and public utility vehicles here, the city council now wants to amend the ordinance banning the practice.

The ban on smoking stays, however.

Instead, the city council wants to expand the ordinance by banning cigarette vendors from sidewalks and streets as well.

Councilor Peter Laviña, trade committee chair, said the council had thought of expanding the ban because of observations that minors could easily gain access to cigarettes from street vendors.

?The proposal is aimed at giving teeth to the existing antismoking ordinance and to make it stiffer,? he said.

Laviña said the proposed amendment would restrict the ?menudo or tingi-tingi? system of selling cigarettes in the city?s thoroughfares.

?It will also ban the selling of cigarettes by sticks, instead, it will be sold by packs in nonprohibited stores,? he said.

Laviña said the passage of the amendment could take place next year, when the discussions shift from the committee level to the main floor.

?We want to make the existing ordinance stiffer because as observed, more people, mostly the young, are learning to smoke,? Laviña said.

Laviña admitted that tobacco manufacturers have reacted sharply to the proposed amendment.

The Tobacco Association of the Philippines has argued that the ban would have a major impact on the sales of their products, he said.

?They are also afraid that other cities will copy the proposal,? he said.

But Laviña said the ban would not kill the tobacco industry because the sale of cigarettes would still be allowed in designated stores.

He said, as in the case of the smoking ban, public hearings will also be conducted on the proposed amendment. Judy Quiros, Inquirer Mindanao