Confiscation of cigarettes is theft, councilor says

By Emme Rose Santiagudo

The plan of the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) to ban and confiscate unlit cigarettes at the main activity area of Dinagyang 2020 can be considered as “theft,” according to Councilor Rommel Duron, the majority floor leader of the Sangguniang Panlungsod.

“It can be considered as theft. Taking of personal property without the consent of the owner,” Duron said in an interview Tuesday.

According to Duron, a lawyer by profession, there is no ordinance or law that prohibits possession of unlit cigarettes in public areas.

“Wala man kita ya ordinansa nga gahambal na indi pwede ang wala nasindihan, ang ginabawal ta ang ‘smoking’. You are not smoking kon gina-display mo lang. Kon wala nasindihan, you did not violate any ordinance,” he said.

The Anti-Smoking Ordinance of the city prohibits smoking, which means the actual lighting of cigarettes and the like, in public spaces.

Recently, ICPO director Colonel Martin Defensor Jr. said he ordered police officers who will secure the Dinagyang to confiscate cigarettes, including the unlit ones, kept inside the bags or pockets of revellers.

Defensor added that Dinagyang revellers will be asked to surrender the cigarettes if they want to enter the venue of festivities. They can claim it when they leave the venue.

“But common sense, what are they going to do with cigarettes in areas where they are not allowed to smoke? We want to prevent them from committing violation of the law,” Defensor said in previous interviews.

But Duron reiterated that “mere possession of cigarettes” cannot be considered a violation, adding that it only becomes illegal when the cigarette is lit and puffed.

“Kon nauyatan mo man lang, waay ka pa sang violation. Once nasindihan mo kag naga-emit smoke then that is violation,” he said.

The councilor added that Dinagyang revellers can resist the seizure of unlit cigarettes.

“You can resist confiscation because that is theft. Kuhaon sa imo forcefully against your will? A cigarette is a personal property,” he said.

The ICPO has not sent any letter to the City Council informing them of the plan to confiscate cigarettes during Dinagyang.

Duron stressed that the police should not be ignorant of the law.

“Mere possession is violation? I don’t think so,” he noted.