MMDA loses appeal on smoking ban TRO

MANILA, Philippines - The Mandaluyong City Regional Trial Court (RTC) junked yesterday a motion for reconsideration filed by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to lift the 20-day temporary restraining order (TRO) on the enforcement of the smoking ban.

RTC Branch 213 Judge Carlos Valenzuela said the MMDA failed to present new arguments to convince him to lift the TRO, issued on Aug. 15.

Valenzuela granted the petitions for TRO filed by security guards Antony Clemente and Vrianne Lamsen, who protested their apprehension by MMDA environment enforcers while they were smoking on the sidewalk along EDSA.

Valenzuela said the area where Clemente and Lamsen were apprehended was not “enclosed or confined” as defined under Republic Act 9211 or the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003. He said the MMDA must implement the prohibition of smoking in places that are only specified in RA 9211.

During a hearing conducted by Valenzuela on Aug. 26, Clemente and Lamsen questioned the MMDA’s authority to implement the smoking ban. They said the MMDA merely adopted a “squid tactic” and totally avoided a rebuttal of the issues they had raised against its authority to implement the smoking ban.

Clemente and Lamsen said that the Inter-Agency Committee on Tobacco or IAC-T is the proper authority to implement the smoking ban campaign of the government, as specified under RA 9211. They claimed that the MMDA cannot empower itself through a resolution that it has itself passed.