Tobacco institute decries graphic health warning

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Tobacco Institute (PTI) has decried the issuance of “a patently illegal” administrative order by the Department of Health (DOH) ordering local cigarette manufacturers, importers, and exporters to print a graphic health warning on every pack of cigarette, saying the move - under the guise of implementing an international treaty - is a blatant violation of a law which regulates the local tobacco industry.

PTI president Rodolfo Salanga also accused the Health secretary of misinforming the public on the key provisions of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - the international treaty that the health department wants enforced even without an implementing law from Congress.

Salanga pointed out that the DOH administrative order forces local cigarette makers to violate Republic Act 9211, otherwise known as the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003.

Section 13 (g) states that “no other printed warnings, except the health warning and the message required in this Section...shall be placed on cigarette packages.”

“If we break this law, it will send industry leaders to jail for up to least three years as well as fined up to P400,000 each,” stressed Salanga, whose group include Fortune Tobacco Corp., Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc., PMFTC Inc., Anglo American Tobacco Corp., La Suerte Cigar and Cigarette Manufacturing Inc., Mighty Tobacco Corp., among others.

“I cannot believe that the health secretary does not know that the FCTC merely recommends the use of graphic health warnings. In fact, Sec. 11 of the FCTC on packaging and labeling of tobacco products specifically provides that any measure to be adopted by a country-member pursuant to the FCTC should be in accordance with its own national law.