Smoking ban: Curbside mass education in civics

TEACHING TOOL: Intended or not, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority has in its two-day-old anti-smoking campaign a tool for gradually disciplining in many aspects the unruly inhabitants of the national capital jungle.

Whatever the opponents of authoritarian rule think, there is merit in the Marcosian slogan “Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, disiplina ang kailangan” (Discipline is the key to national progress) unfurled during the martial rule years.

In fact, what this country in disarray needs is a kind of dictator  but selfless and enlightened  who can whip Filipinos into line for their own good.

Shades of President Noynoy Aquino’s “tuwid na daan” (straight path)? In a way, yes.

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ACCEPTANCE: Having grown up flouting the rules and getting away with it, Filipinos can be expected to resist every attempt to enforce rules that do not suit their accustomed disorderly ways.

Over time, however, after seeing the salutary effects of firm and fair enforcement and having been convinced of the good intentions of the administrator, citizens can learn to appreciate the value of discipline.

We have seen how some smokers being cited for violation complain and plead  but soon realize that they have to acknowledge their violation of the Tobacco Control Act (RA 9211).

On the first day of enforcement, 163 violators were caught. First offenders have to pay a P500 fine; second timers P1,000; and those caught three and more times, P5,000. Those who cannot pay will be made to render eight hours of community service.

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FAIR WARNING: Before enforcement went full-blast July 1 in Metro Manila, there was a one-month information campaign during which around 9,000 persons were accosted and told the consequences of smoking in public places.

The law defines public places as “enclosed or confined areas of all hospitals, medical clinics, schools, public transportation terminals and offices, and building such as private and public offices, recreational places, shopping malls, movie houses, hotels, restaurants, and the like.”

“Public conveyances” are defined as modes of transportation servicing the general population such as, but not limited to, “elevators, airplanes, buses, taxicabs, ships, jeepneys, light rail transits, tricycles, and similar vehicles.”

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EDUCATION: The MMDA anti-smoking campaign reminds us of the ban against chewing gum in Singapore that many visitors, especially gum-chewing hillbillies, regarded as petty and ridiculous.

Seemingly a minor habit, chewing and disposing of the sticky stuff just about anywhere, including spitting it on the sidewalk, betrays a lack of discipline and hygienic habits.

Implementing a ban against the chewing of gum  or smoking in public places  is more than law enforcement.

It is curbside mass education on civics. It teaches citizens the majesty of the law, as well as the necessity and the rewards of obeying it.

It tells us that if one thinks nothing of violating the law against smoking in public, he could graduate into ignoring other rules until he progresses into more serious law-breaking.

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HABIT-FORMING: Aside from developing civic consciousness, the anti-smoking campaign ingrains in the individual the habit of obeying the law even when ignoring or violating it seems of little consequence.

The campaign may start small, but builds something large in our subconscious  a predisposition to always obey the law. In stages, it teaches us discipline and good citizenship.

Strictly banning/regulating cigarette-smoking (proven as a health hazard to the smoker and those around him) creates a bias for consistent obedience to the law  including “minor” ordinances such as those on jaywalking and littering.

If successful in Metro Manila, the campaign can be replicated  maybe in phases  in other places till the entire country is covered.

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ARMM POLLS: Although President Aquino has signed the law postponing the election in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, its opponents continue to press their call for genuine democratic representation in the ARMM.

Signed as RA 10153, the new law postpones the scheduled August 8 election and synchronizes it with the May 2013 national midterm polls.

The bill was passed by the Senate last June 6 in spite of the Senate Committee on Local Government’s recommendation against postponement based on its research and consultations in the region.

Senators Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, committee chairman, and Edgardo J. Angara, among the seven senators who voted against it, said postponement sends the wrong message to the Muslim community.

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AUTONOMY IGNORED: Angara recalled that the grievances aired by the Moro National Liberation Front, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and other factions in Mindanao are “premised on genuine representation in the same way unrest in the Middle East is.”

“The ARMM was created precisely to give them autonomy and guarantee genuine representation for the region,” he said. “Placing appointees to the governing body to rule for 22 months would be against those exact principles.”

The law authorizes the President to appoint officers-in-charge to the posts that will be vacated from August until their successors are elected in 2013.

Angara added: “We should not be so cavalier in dealing with the pledge of self-rule. Muslim Filipinos in Mindanao have fought for it since the Spanish colonization. It is their right  that is what we have to recognize and respect.”

House Minority Leader Rep. Edcel Lagman has filed a motion asking the Supreme Court to nullify the RA 10153 arguing that the law was unconstitutional.

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