Days of smoking Cabinet men numbered

The days of certain Cabinet officials are numbered… not in their posts but — as in the case of Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople — as smokers.

President Arroyo is set to sign into law the Anti-Smoking Act of 2003, which was passed by both chambers of Congress before it adjourned sine die yesterday.

Presidential chief of staff Rigoberto Tiglao told The STAR yesterday that Mrs. Arroyo is definitely set to sign the anti-smoking law as soon as the Palace reviews the printed copy.

Tiglao, Ople as well as Press Secretary-on leave Hernani Braganza and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council chairman Michael Defensor are among the chain-smoking Cabinet officials who would have to give up this habit as soon as the new law takes effect.

"It’s a small sacrifice to pay," Tiglao said.

The Palace though is still awaiting transmission of the enrolled bill from Congress.

But even without the passage into law of the Anti-Smoking Act, smoking inside Malacañang is strictly prohibited since the Palace has been declared a "national shrine" during the time of the cigar-chomping former President Fidel Ramos.

Palace officials and Cabinet members who could not resist their nicotine addiction have to step out of the Palace to get their fix.

The anti-smoking law was principally sponsored by pro-administration Lakas-CMD Sen. Juan Flavier, while Mrs. Arroyo was among the co-authors of the bill when she was still senator.

Flavier, a doctor of medicine and former health secretary who spearheaded the department’s "Yosi Kadiri" campaign, said it took him 10 years to see this anti-smoking measure finally passed into law due to strong lobby by foreign and local cigarette manufacturers in the country.

It prescribes a set of penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment against individuals and entities found violating any provisions in the new law, which prohibits smoking inside public and private offices, schools, churches, malls, government and private buildings, and other public places where there are 10 or more people present.

Among other provisions, the new law also prohibits the sale of cigarettes within 100 meters of schools.