DOH secretary under fire for posing with tobacco execs

MANILA, Philippines — Health Secretary Ted Herbosa is in hot water after posing for a photo with executives from Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Co. during a recent event at Malacañang.

The Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) said Herbosa violated a Department of Health (DOH) and Civil Service Commission (CSC) joint circular, which restricts government officials from engaging with the tobacco industry.

“Worse than the hypocrisy of the tobacco industry (in donating mobile clinics while causing deaths and diseases) is the lack of integrity of the Secretary of Health attending this event and posing happily for a group photo, trading public health principles and ethics for political convenience and violating CSC-DOH Joint Memorandum Circular 2010-01,” SEATCA executive director Ulysses Dorotheo said in a statement.

CSC-DOH JMC 2010-01 explicitly prohibits government officials from engaging in unnecessary interactions with, or accepting donations from, the tobacco industry.

Due to this, Dorotheo argued that Herbosa’s actions cast doubt on his credibility to serve as president of the World Health Assembly (WHA), which is scheduled to take place in Geneva, Switzerland this May.

“The Philippines, under this government, does not deserve to lead the WHA,” he stressed.