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SC lets 5 ex-DOH chiefs intervene in tobacco graphic warning case


The Supreme Court has permitted five former Department of Health secretaries to intervene in the case on the validity of an administrative order requiring graphic warnings on cigarette packs. In a resolution issued last February, the high court's Third Division granted the motion for leave to intervene filed by 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). A motion for leave to intervene is filed when one is not a direct party to the case. The former secretaries filed in January this year their petition, accompanied by a motion for leave to intervene. "The court resolves to note and grant the motion for leave to intervene filed by movants Cabral, Duque, Glavez-Tan, Romualdez, and Bengzon," according to the resolution, a copy of which was emailed on Thursday to GMA News Online. The SC also resolved to note the former secretaries' petition-in-intervention, which asked the SC to validate Cabral's Administrative Order No. 13 requiring cigarette manufacturers to place graphic warnings that depict the ills of smoking on cigarette packs. Tobacco firms question order Cabral issued the controversial order last May. The DOH is now headed by Enrique Ona, who was appointed by President Benigno Aquino III following his election last year. Several tobacco companies questioned the order before the lower courts of Marikina City, Tanauan City in Batangas, Paranaque City, Malolos town in Bulacan, Pasig City, and Makati City. In July 2010, the Marikina City Regional Trial Court Branch 272 ruled in favor of Fortune Tobacco Corp., owned by business tycoon Lucio Tan, which sought to block the implementation of the DOH order. Then the case in Tanauan was dismissed in last September. These developments compelled the former Health secretaries 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," according to the former Health secretaries. Citing World Health Organization data, they said graphic warnings are better than text as pictures "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. — VS, GMA News

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