Tobacco industry seeks rules on graphic health warning law

MANILA, Philippines - The tobacco industry is planning to ask the Supreme Court to stop the enforcement of the Graphic Health Warning Law on March 3 since the implementing rules and regulations have not been released.

If by the middle of next month the IRR is not yet out, the industry will file the petition for injunction, according to an industry insider.

Since the IRR has not been released, the Bureau of Internal Revenue has not acted on the tobacco companies’ applications for the new packaging design with graphic health warning, the insider added.

The BIR is still waiting for the  Inter-Agency Committee on Tobacco to release the IRR before acting on the applications, the source said.

The IRR has long been finished but it is still being routed to the  department secretaries, according to the source.

“Not all of them have signed the IRR and the industry is running out of time,” the source said.

“The irony is that the single biggest stumbling block now is the government itself.” 

Former health undersecretary and IRR committee head Alexander Padilla said the IRR had been finished last October and it was being circulated for signatures of department secretaries.

 “I’m not sure who have already signed because the DOH (Department of Health) is in charge of that,” Padilla said.