1,305 smokers caught in Caloocan

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and local enforcers have apprehended 1,305 smoking ban violators in Caloocan City.

According to a report recently prepared by the city’s Reformed Department of Public Safety and Traffic Management, most of the violators were caught at the Monumento station of the Light Rail Transit.

The RDPSTM has been tasked to implement the “100% Smoke-Free Metro” campaign launched by the MMDA on May 30, an expansion of a previously existing smoking ban that covered only government buildings.

The figure on the report submitted to the Office of the Mayor, 1,305 as of Thursday, represents arrests made since July 1.

“(The) (local) government is … serious in upholding the smoking ban … in public places or (in) any (place) within or near the city hall,” Echiverri said in response to the arrests.

Aside from the MMDA and the RDPSTM, the mayor said that officials of the city’s 188 barangays were also on the lookout for any violators of the ban.

Anyone caught lighting up a stick (will) be meted the appropriate punishment, Echiverri said.

On its first day of implementation, the MMDA said that 249 violators of the no-smoking drive had been arrested throughout Metro Manila.