5 ex-DOH heads to SC: Allow graphic warnings on cigarette packs

UPDATED 2:30 p.m. - Five former Health secretaries asked the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday to validate a Department of Health (DOH) order that will require the placement of graphic information on cigarette packs. Those who filed the petition to intervene were former DOH heads Esperanza Cabral (January to May 2010), Francisco Duque II (2005-2010), Alberto Romualdez (1998-2001), Jaime Galvez-Tan (1995), and Alfredo Bengzon (1987-1991). Cabral and Galvez-Tan were present at the filing of the petition at the high tribunal. In May 2010, Cabral issued Administrative Order No. 13 requiring cigarette manufacturers to place picture warnings on cigarette packs. However, several tobacco companies questioned the order before lower courts in Marikina City, Tanauan City in Batangas, Paranaque City, Malolos town in Bulacan province, Pasig City, and Makati City. In July 2010, the Marikina City Regional Trial Court Branch 272 ruled in favor of Fortune Tobacco Corporation, owned by business tycoon Lucio Tan, which sought to block the implementation of the DOH order. But in September, Philip Morris' case in Tanauan was dismissed. DOH secretaries' intervention On Monday, the Health secretaries said that these developments compelled them to intervene. "It is in this tumultuous setting that Movants, all former Secretaries, now come to the Honorable Court seeking to intervene in order to protect the public's paramount right to life, health, and information and ensure the Philippines' long and overdue compliance with its obligations under the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control," said the former DOH heads. They then asked the SC to rule on the validity of the controversial order "with dispatch and finality." "It is respectfully prayed that the Honorable Court exercise its power of supervision over all lower courts and settle all questions on the validity of AO 2010-0013 in favor of the DOH," said the petitioners. Graphic warnings Citing World Health Organization data, the former DOH heads said picture warnings are better than text warnings because the former "increase the motivation of smokers to quit." They likewise said that the graphic warnings are necessary because about 240 Filipinos die every day because of smoking and tobacco-related diseases. Based on WHO data, the former DOH secretaries also listed the following statistics on smoking in the Philippines:

One of three Filipinos 15 years old and above smoke;

78 percent of Filipinos are passive smokers, including babies and children;

One of five cases of heart attacks in the Philippines is caused by second-hand smoke. – VVP, GMANews.TV