Can’t quit? Pray, says ex-prelate

Take it from someone who used to smoke 100 cigarettes a day.

Retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said heavy smokers who find it hard to kick the habit should try prayer to get over the addiction.

Cruz, who said he used to smoke five packs of cigarettes a day, said he resorted to prayer to stop smoking, especially after he was about to undergo a triple heart bypass operation.

“That was 20 or 25 years ago… that’s my reward (from smoking), a heart bypass,” Cruz said in an interview.

“I also prayed that I won’t return to my old habit and I have been successful ever since,” he said.

Cruz said he thought he could not quit smoking because he had started the habit while still in the seminary.

“I was smoking five packs of cigarettes a day. That’s about 100 cigarettes a day. My ashtrays had water in them so I could put the cigarette butt out by itself instead of me putting it out,” Cruz said.

He said that whenever he left the country, “the first thing that went into my luggage was cigarettes.”

“Stop it. If you want to stop you can stop it. If I was able to stop it, others can also. If they cannot stop, it’s because they lack determination,” Cruz said.

Emer Rojas, a member of the cancer survivors’ group New Vois Association of the Philippines, said he had the same experience as Cruz except that he stopped when he already had throat cancer.

“It was in 2002 when I got operated on. I was cancer-free for a year but after 2003 the cancer recurred. I had to undergo chemotherapy every month. From 150 pounds my weight fell to 90 pounds,” Rojas said.

He said his group supported bills in Congress that seek to raise the “sin taxes” on cigarettes to discourage people from taking up the habit.

“Some of our newer members are very young and yet they suffer from cancer not because they are smokers but because of inhaling smoke from their environment. When people smoke, they endanger not only their own health but also those of the people around them,” Rojas said.