DoH backs antismoking drive in Metro despite TRO

The Department of Health (DoH) on Tuesday threw its support behind the Metro Manila Development Authority’s (MMDA) decision to pursue its crackdown against smoking in public places.

The DoH said it supported the MMDA despite the temporary restraining order issued by the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court against the ban on public smoking.

“The DoH stresses that the right of a smoker ceases when he or she violates the rights of others to protect their own health,” the department said in a statement.

“The DoH supports the decision of the MMDA, together with the local government units, to pursue the enforcement of its smoking ban in areas covered by Republic Act 9211 or Tobacco Regulation Act of 1993,” it added.

The Mandaluyong court on August 15 issued a temporary restraining order after two security guards caught smoking in front of Farmer’s Market in Cubao challenged the ban.

“Despite these developments, the DoH continues to drumbeat its advocacy against smoking. The ill effects of smoking are experienced not only by smokers themselves, but also by the unsuspecting public,” the department said.

Meanwhile, a group of throat cancer patients on Tuesday appealed to the two guards to voice the truth.

“We want you to know that if you will stand firm with your admission on television, there are a lot of us who will be supporting you,” Emerito Rojas, president of New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP), said in his letter to Antony Clemente, one of the petitioners who admitted in a television interview last week that he has been promised money by a tobacco firm.

Clemente, however, immediately executed an affidavit denying all the statements he supposedly made on the TV interview.

Rojas said he tried to reach Clemente after his TV interview but failed to do so.—With Nina Calleja