A non-government group has taken to task nearly a dozen local government units to task for naming some of their streets after popular cigarette brands, products that “have consistently contributed to over 10 Filipino deaths a day.”
The road is named after Marlboro cigarette brand
The Quezon City-based Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP) also threatened to sue the LGUs should they persist in putting up the street signs.
Doing so is a “blatant violation of Republic Act No. 9211,” otherwise known as the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2007.
FCAP executive director Ma. Encarnita Limpin asked the LGUs to “remove as soon as possible all street signs bearing the name of cigarette brands.”
Otherwise, they “face the consequences of violating the law regulating tobacco advertising and promotions,” warned Limpin.
Limpin pointed out “street signs fall under the category of outdoor advertising because they provide publicity by words or images about a particular product.”
FCAP plans to “hold dialogs with erring LGUs to discuss ways of strictly implementing RA 9211 without exception.”
According to a list furnished the INQUIRER by Department of Health insiders, more than 40 roads and communities nationwide are named after cigarette brands produced by the recently-merged Fortune Tobacco Corp. and Philip Morris Phils. Manufacturing, Inc.
In Fairview Park subdivision in Quezon City alone, at least 11 streets bear the name of the following cigarette brands: Marlboro, Kool, Dunhill, Pall Mall, Viceroy, Chelsea, Old Gold, Gold Man, Viking, Miller, and Newport.
There is also a Marlboro Street in Meycauyan, Bulacan, and a Marlboro road in La Trinidad, Benguet, as well as Marlboro Country barangays in Basco, Batanes; Sagada, Ifugao; and Burgos and Umigan towns in Pangasinan.
Streets named after Fortune Tobacco products include Hope in Quezon City, Las Pinas City and Paranaque City; Winston in Quezon City, Iloilo City and Meycauayan, Bulacan; Fortune in Marikina, Paranaque City and Quezon City; Mark in Taytay, Rizal, and Muntinlupa City; Kent in Bacolor, Pampanga, and Cainta, Rizal; Chelsea in Antipolo City; and Dunhill in Makati City.
Earlier, FCAP assailed the Tanauan City, Batangas, government for naming one of its barangay streets after the US cigarette brand Philip Morris.
“Extolling and honoring Philip Morris, a manufacturer and purveyor of a deathly product through a street sign not only runs contrary to law but also to public duty and trust,” said FCAP.
