Tobacco control advocate awarded
MANILA, Philippines - The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids presented The Judy Wilkenfeld Award for International Tobacco Control Excellence to Dr. E. Ulysses “Yul” Dorotheo during the campaign’s annual Youth Advocates of the Year Awards Gala held in Washington DC last May 18.
Dr. Dorotheo, a neuro-ophthalmologist, has been a tobacco control advocate for over 10 years and is the first Asian to win the Judy Wilkenfeld Award. He is currently project director for the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance’s Southeast Asia Initiative on Tobacco Tax (SEATCA-SITT), a five-year project aimed primarily at raising tobacco taxes and prices in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
In receiving the Judy Wilkenfeld Award for International Tobacco Control Excellence, Dr. Dorotheo said: “The Marlboro cowboy may have ridden out of the US, but we are continually taking on Philip Morris and other transnational tobacco companies in the Philippines and in Asia. We need to fight collectively to ensure that public health is prioritized over international trade.”
“Dr. Dorotheo is a true champion of tobacco control, and has always put forth consensus building in his working style, thereby developing strong working relations with tobacco control NGOs, governments and international agencies, and advocates, and earning the admiration of his countrymen and international colleagues, specially in the advocacy for the stronger implementation and development of the FCTC in Southeast Asia,” said SEATCA director Bungon Ritthiphakdee.
Dr. Maricar Limpin, executive director of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance, Philippines (FCAP), said, “We are proud that the first Asian to be given the Judy Wilkenfeld Award is a Filipino and a founding member of the FCAP. It is a very significant contribution to the pride of Filipinos working in the global community for public health.”
HealthJustice, a tobacco control NGO in the Philippines, said Dr. Dorotheo is crucial to efforts to push for higher tobacco taxes and simplifying the current tax structure in the country. “Such efforts will hopefully relieve the government of health costs and curb tobacco use, especially among the youth whom we have to protect from a life-shortening addiction.”
The number of Filipinos dying of tobacco-related diseases has ballooned to 87,600 annually.
