Bloomberg Philantrophies grants MMDA P9.5M for smoke-free metropolis
MANILA,
March 15 (PNA) -- The New York-based Bloomberg Philantrophies has
approved a P9.5 million grant to the Metropolitan Manila Development
Authority (MMDA) to finance an anti-tobacco use program aimed to make
Metro Manila a 100 percent smoke-free region by 2012.
MMDA Chairman Oscar Inocentes and the International Union
Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, or The Union, signed on Friday a
two-year agreement approving the implementation of the MMDA’s two-year
project, “Enforcement of a 100% Smoke Free Environment Policy in Metro
Manila.”
The Union, a France-based non-profit scientific organization
involved in a worldwide campaign to promote lung health, has endorsed
for funding the MMDA’s project proposal to Bloomberg Philantrophies, the
umbrella organization that manages the charitable institutions of
billionaire entrepreneur-turned-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“We take pride in being chosen by The Union and the Bloomberg
Philantrophies to lead this anti-smoking campaign. With the active
participation of the local government units and our private sector
partners, and with sustained, no-nonsense enforcement of Republic Act
9211, it is not impossible to achieve our goal of a smoke-free Metro
Manila in two years’ time,” Inocentes said.
RA 9211, or The Tobacco Regulation Act, was enacted by Congress
on 2003 to primarily regulate the packaging, use, sale, and
distribution of harmful tobacco products.
Inocentes said the MMDA’s proposal was one of only five of the
35 project proposals submitted by several countries and approved by The
Union for review of its panel of international experts.
With the Union’s recommendation, Bloomberg Philantrophies
agreed to provide MMDA a financial grant of US$ 206,701. Bloomberg’s
grant program was launched in December 2006 to support the development
and delivery of high-impact tobacco control interventions at the country
level.
Dr. Loida Labao, chief environmental management specialist and
head of the Plans and Programs Development and Monitoring Division of
the Metropolitan Sanitation Management Office (MSMO), the MMDA office
that submitted the project proposal to The Union, said the two-year
program officially starts on July 1, 2010 up to June 20, 2012.
“Basically, what we will do is to strictly enforce RA 9211 in
the entire Metro Manila, which prohibits smoking in public places. To
start with, we will be enforcing a no-smoking policy within the MMDA
premises. Employees caught smoking will be charged administratively. We
want to make MMDA a model smoke-free workplace,” Labao said.
The first part of the two-year program is the “building
capacity enforcement” phase where the MMDA-MSMO will conduct a series of
advocacy meetings and planning workshops with the 16 cities and one
municipality of Metro Manila to get them to enact their own anti-smoking
ordinance in their respective jurisdictions, she added.
“We will train our traffic enforcers and those from the local
government units (LGUs), and even members of the Philippine National
Police (PNP) on the enforcement of the provisions of RA 9211. One option
we’re studying is to incorporate anti-smoking apprehensions into the
single ticketing system of Metro Manila and the MMDA,” Labao said.
Moreover, Labao said the MSMO will also undertake reviews of
existing laws on regulation of tobacco use passed by the local city
councils.
The MMDA-MSMO will also develop a marketing and communications
plan to support the achievement of smoke-free policy goals in the LGUs.
These include publication of the smoke-free ordinances in
newspapers, posting of signage along the seven major thoroughfares in
Metro Manila and in all public utility vehicles and mass rail systems.
“Transforming Metro Manila into a smoke-free community is very
doable. We just have to make people understand that smoking is extremely
dangerous not only to the smokers’ health but to every one of us. A
healthy Metro Manila is a healthy and progressive Philippines,”
Inocentes, for his part, added. (PNA)
DCT/FFC/CLTC
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