For smoke-free LGU: Iloilo City eyes 2nd Red Orchid national award

CEBU, Philippines - The Iloilo City Anti-Smoking Task force (ICAST) passed the regional validation and was confident to get another victory, this time in the national 2013 Red Orchid Award for smoke-free local government unit.

The validation was conducted by the Department of Health-6 and the Framework Convention on Tobacco  Control Alliance- Philippines (FCAP).

ICAST director Inigo Garingalao said the city deserved to be included in the national validation because of its campaign against illegal smoking and strict enforcement of the City Ordinance 2006-150 or the Comprehensive Anti Smoking Ordinance of Iloilo City.

As part of its mandate, Garingalao said ICAST has been conducting orientation seminars in schools and establishing cessation clinics for smokers who want to quit the habit.

Garingalao said the ICAST campaign is focusing more on minors, especially students, because 54 percent of the apprehended violators of the ordinance were the youths.

“Our campaign is not only apprehending violators of the ordinance but also informing the public of bad effects of smoking through different programs, activities, and even hanging of posters and tarpaulins bearing warning pictures, among others,” Garingalao said.

Iloilo City won the Red Orchid Award last year when it joined for the first time the regional and national validations as part of the World No Tobacco Day.

Other LGU awardees in Western Visayas last year were Roxas City of Capiz and Buenavista town of Guimaras, which were also winners in 2011. The same award was also given to four hospitals in the region: Western Visayas Sanitarium in Sta. Barbara, Iloilo, Western Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao, Iloilo City, DOH-6 and Anilao Monfort Hospital in Anilao, Iloilo.

Awardees are being awarded for their health facilities and implementation of anti-smoking programs in their communities. The World No Tobacco Day has started in 1998 and now recognizing hospitals and LGUs helping in the campaign to end this tobacco epidemic.

The ICAST has arrested more or less 3, 800 smokers who were caught smoking in non-smoking areas in this city since it started operation in 2010. Common violators were students followed by taxi and jeepney drivers, Garingalao added. (FREEMAN)