Thank you for not smoking

It was a battle fought individually in the beginning.

I am not sure if I have my facts correct, but I recall it was former Sen. Juan Flavier who first launched an anti-smoking campaign in media. Do you remember Yosi Kadiri?

It must also have been him who sponsored the anti-smoking bill because Sen. Loren Legarda, whose dream it is to see us breathing clean air, would always tell me to credit Sen. Flavier every time I would write about the campaign in this section.

For my second Starbytes column in 2000, I decided to call the attention of restaurants that oppress the non-smokers among us by giving better seating sections (quieter areas complete with a view) to smokers.

All by myself, I would approach the owners and managers of eating places and call their attention regarding the unfair practice — plus the absence of no-smoking areas that are protected from the pollutants of the smokers. Sure, some eateries had designated smoking sections, but the non-smokers still got to inhale their smoke since there were no concrete dividers.

If I had dinner companions — woe to them since our meals were always ruined with me complaining to management about the lack of respect for the non-smoker. (Just to show you I don’t ask for much, I hardly complain about the food, unless it is spoiled, which had happened to me twice.)

I campaigned vigorously for a smoke-free Philippines both as a media person and in my own private capacity. My biggest reward would always be this letter from now Vice President Jejomar Binay, who was then mayor of Makati, which was the first city in Metro Manila to push for no smoking. 

It wasn’t just one of those standard thank you letters. He obviously went over one of my columns carefully and thanked me for all the clarifications — that Makati wasn’t just being a villain to smokers. There was — as early as that — already a law protecting non-smokers.

He signed it and I am now thinking of having it framed. Or if I run out of money, maybe I can sell it on e-bay. But I’m holding on to it until he becomes President. That should make the letter even more valuable.

But invaluable was the support I got from an anti-smoking organization, headed by former Miss International Aurora Pijuan. It was Maribel Cantada, however, who drafted me to join the group. She said that she was fighting against smoking because it was lung cancer that took the life away from her beloved husband, the great sports broadcaster Joe Cantada.

It was Maribel who gave me tips on how to dodge death threats. Yes, there were some instances when I feared for my life. But I always told myself to choose: Either it was a slow and painful death for me (which was what happened to Joe) or a quick bullet to snuff the life out of me — fast. With the second one, at least suspects could still have been rounded up. But with lung cancer — I wasn’t going to sue every person who sat beside me with a lit cigarette. Although heaven knows I remember most of them since I had planned to recite all their names in my deathbed.

But now that the MMDA is finally enforcing the smoking ban in Metro Manila (finally, finally!), I am being magnanimous in victory. I forgive everyone who had sent me on a sneezing spell and caused me to stock up on every anti-histamine tablet or syrup available here and abroad.

However, just when I was about to uncork the bottle of wine to celebrate I read the responses last week to the Inbox question: What do you think of the smoking ban in public places in Metro Manila? A lot of respondents were jubilant actually — and congratulations to all of us.

But there were also those who raised the truth about this nation and our ningas cogon mentality. In my ecstasy, I had forgotten that we are in the Philippines where nothing ever gets implemented correctly or completed. 

And so I am putting the wine back in the chiller and cancel the celebration. I’m back to being vigilant. 

It’s not an easy chore and I am getting old and tired. But I will do anything to have healthy lungs.

The fight may not be over yet, but I can already sniff that we are almost there. This is my only wish — that in my last moment on earth, the air I will be gasping as my last would finally be clean.