Starting today, people caught smoking in public places or commuter vehicles in the metro will be fined P500 or made to render eight hours of community service.
Smoking Ban Sign against the Sky
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairpeson Francis Tolentino said they “will be apprehending smokers caught puffing in public places as part of our agency’s intensified anti-smoking drive.”
The MMDA already warned 6,470 smokers during their one month information campaign which was launched in the latter part of May.
Deputized environmental enforcers in mint green uniform with the MMDA logo, carrying signs indicating fines for violators, are monitoring public places for smokers.
The smoking ban is connected to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Treaty of 2003, which was ratified by the Senate in April 2005 through Republic Act 9211 or the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003. This regulates the packaging, use, distribution, and advertisement of tobacco products.
Public places are defined in RA 9211 as “enclosed or confined areas of all hospitals, medical clinics, schools, public transportation terminals and offices, and buildings such as private and public offices, recreational places, shopping malls, movie houses, hotels, restaurants, and the like.”
Public conveyances are defined under RA 9211 as “modes of transportation servicing the general population such as, but not limited to, ‘elevators, airplanes, buses, taxicabs, ships, jeepneys, light rail transits, tricycles, and similar vehicles.’”
Four cities in the metro—Caloocan, Muntinlupa, Mandaluyong, and Navotas—recently announced that they will enforce stricter rules in the smoking ban. These cities added “open space” to the definition of public places.
“Open space” includes waiting sheds, markets, parks, among others, according to the Manila Bulletin.
Tolentino said that aside from the MMDA, local government units (LGU) law enforcers will also apprehend violators as each LGU in Metro Manila has its own policy on tobacco control.
Monitoring will initially concentrate on Monumento-LRT in Caloocan City; Farmers Plaza in Cubao, Quezon City; the Philippine Overseas Employent Agency (POEA) Building on EDSA, Mandaluyong; and the Pasay-Rotunda area.
First offense violators will be fined P500, P1,000 for second offense, and P5,000 for subsequent offenses. Those who cannot afford to pay will have to render eight hours of community service.
Philippine Medical Association president Dr. Oscar Tinio said they will also be sending people to conduct anti-smoking education drives in specific areas of the metro.
“A separate study done in the United States by the US Department of Health and Human Services showed that only by eliminating smoking in indoor spaces can a non–smoker be fully protected from exposure to second-hand smoke,” Tinio said.
Recent reports said that several people were already caught violating the ban as early as today, with at least eight people apprehended in the Cubao area.
