Quezon City forms team to go after stubborn smokers at city hall

The next time you’re at Quezon City Hall, think before you light that cigarette.

The Quezon City government will be forming a team to go after people who smoke inside city hall despite a ban.

The team, which will be composed of personnel from the Department of Public Order and Safety (DPOS), will first undergo an orientation and seminar on Republic Act 9211, or the Tobacco Regulation Act, before its deployment.

According to Romulo, the DPOS personnel will go after people who violate the regulations that ban smoking in public places.

“We want to train the DPOS personnel as an antismoking patrol force which our office can mobilize for the purpose of apprehending violators [so that we can improve the] implementation of the tobacco law and ordinance,” Dr. Rowell Romulo of the city health office said.

According to Romulo, the apprehending officers must be knowledgeable on the provisions of the law and the hazards of smoking in public.

City health officer Dr. Antonieta Inumerable, meanwhile, warned employees and visitors to observe Civil Service Memo Circular No. 17 S-2009 and the city ordinance, which both prohibit smoking at city hall.

“Anyone caught smoking [inside] the city hall complex, particularly in nondesignated smoking areas, will be apprehended by authorities and will be penalized or fined in accordance with the law,” she said.

Employees caught violating the law will be reported to the City Personnel Department. Nonemployees, on the other hand, will be penalized or meted out a fine.

In a report to Mayor Herbert Bautista, Inumerable said that the antismoking campaign at city hall dubbed “Oplan Sita” has so far led to the apprehension of 504 violators this year.

Of the total, 254 were city hall employees while the rest were visitors.

Last year, a total of 1,027 people were accosted for violating the no-smoking rule at city hall.

Smoking is only allowed in a portion of the football field beside the main building.