MMDA smoke ban backers join fun run

A group of doctors and anti-tobacco advocates led by running priest Fr. Robert Reyes held a fun run Monday to show their support for the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s (MMDA) campaign to ban smoking in public places, including major thoroughfares.

Reyes was joined by members of the Philippine Medical Association

Makati City chapter, Optical Media Board Chairman Ronnie Ricketts, retired Brigadier General Danilo Lim and youth group representatives.

The runners, who later met with MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino at the agency, criticized Judge Carlos Valenzuela of the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court Branch 213 for ordering the agency to stop implementing the ban on public smoking in Metro Manila.

The issuance of a temporary restraining order was based on a petition filed by two security guards who paid a fine of P500 each after they were apprehended by MMDA environmental enforcers for smoking near Edsa in Cubao, Quezon City, in July.

One of the petitioners, Antony Clemente, later said in a television interview that he filed the case because he had been promised money by a tobacco firm, a claim that was denied by his lawyer, Luis de la Paz.

Earlier, there were also reports that one of the clients of De la Paz’s law firm, Gonzales Batiller David Leabres Reyes & Associates, was Philip Morris Companies Inc.

De la Paz also denied this at first although he later clarified that his firm used to do consultancy work for the tobacco giant.

“There are no safe levels of tobacco smoke,” said Makati Medical Society president Dr. Elizabeth Ifurung-Gonzalez. According to her, tobacco use accounts for cardiovascular deaths in the Philippines and around the world. Smokers also expose themselves to the risk of contracting non-communicable diseases like chronic pulmonary disorders.

“The right of a person to smoke ends when it encroaches on the rights of others,” Lim said, adding that he was backing the MMDA in its fight for a clean environment.

Sought for comment, De la Paz said he had nothing against the advocates of the smoking ban.

“It’s a very admirable thing to do if they are running for public health. But the issue here is not smoking per se. This is whether or not the MMDA is implementing the ban according to the law,” De la Paz added.