DAVAO CITY, Philippines – In this city, no one is above the law, specially the anti-smoking ordinance.
This, President Aquino apparently knows fully well, as he puffed a stick of cigarette under a tree marked as a designated smoking area near a restaurant along JP Laurel Avenue where he had lunch yesterday.
“Look, I’m a law-abiding citizen,†the President told The STAR, pointing to the marker indicating that the area cordoned off by bamboo and plastic rope was a designated smoking area in the Victoria Plaza parking lot, several meters away from the restaurant row.
A new comprehensive anti-smoking ordinance passed in June last year provides stricter provisions. The smoking ban was enforced as early as 2000.
The President was here yesterday to address officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao during the second Local Government Units Summit on Governance and Development at the Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao.
The President also pointed out that his convoy had to follow the city’s speed limit, too.
“But I was not driving. The driver had to abide by the speed limit,†he said.
Last October, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order 39 setting the speed limits – 30 kilometers per hour in the downtown area, 40 kph in the perimeter of the city, and 60 kph on roads away from the downtown.
Duterte has refused to budge to calls, especially from the private sector, to increase the speed limits.
The President also noted the proposed ban on videoke and karaoke bars beyond 9 p.m. that the city council still has to pass.
The President acknowledged how Davao City residents have complied with local ordinances, including the liquor ban that has been moved from 2 a.m. to 1 a.m.
The ban on the sale, use, transport and even possession of firecrackers and pyrotechnic materials has also been in effect here for 12 years, resulting in zero casualties during the New Year’s Eve revelry.