Nationwide Smoking Ban Is Seriously Implemented In Cagayan de Oro

Mayor Oscar Moreno said he believes smoking can best be deterred by treating it as a “personal disease” that needs a “societal approach” rather than as an offense with corresponding penalties.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s executive order (EO) banning smoking nationwide took effect Saturday, July 23.

The EO provides for the establishment of no smoking areas in public places whether indoor or outdoor.

Public places means all places, fixed or mobile, that are accessible or open to the public or places for collective use, regardless of ownership or right to access, including but not limited to schools, workplaces, government facilities, establishments that provide food and drinks, accommodation, merchandise, professional services, entertainment or other services. It also includes outdoor spaces where facilities are available for public or where a crowd of people would gather, such as, but not limited to, playgrounds, sports grounds or centers, church grounds, health/hospital compounds, transportation terminals, markets, resorts, walkways/sidewalks, entrance ways, waiting areas and the like, the EO said.

Moreno said he will strictly impose the order but was quick to add that he is more ‘liberal’ in treating people.

I think it’s more of a societal treatment, which is more important than the penalty, if any, i don’t think that the penalty side is the solution to deter smoking, but rather the awareness that the society must view smoking as dangerous, he said.

I think very few people smoke now in the city, more and more people are starting to realize that smoking is bad, not just for your health, it’s given. Of course, smoking now is no longer fashionable, unlike before na sikat ka if you smoke, that’s not the case anymore, Moreno said.