DESPITE LACK OF BASIS: ICPO to prohibit cigarettes in Dinagyang activity areas

By Jennifer P. Rendon

Cigarettes, even the unlit ones kept in bags or pockets, will not be allowed inside all Dinagyang Festival activity areas.

Police Colonel Martin Defensor, Jr, Iloilo City police chief, said he ordered officer who will man the personnel screening areas to confiscate cigarettes of revellers who will go inside all Dinagyang activity areas.

The areas include the tribe performance areas in City Proper district and places for Dinagyang-related activities like concerts.

But Defensor clarified they have no intention of keeping the cigarettes.

“They will be asked to surrender the cigarettes if they want to enter then claim it once they go out,” he said.

Defensor admitted that no law or ordinance  supports his order.

“But common sense, what are they going to do with cigarettes in areas where they are not allowed to smoke?” he said.

Issued by President Rodrigo Duterte on May 16, 2017, Executive Order No. 26 (Providing for the Establishment of Smoke-Free Environments in Public and Enclosed Places) invoked the Clean Air Act of 1999 and the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003 imposing a nationwide ban on smoking in all public places in the Philippines.

The ban replicates at the national level an ordinance in Davao City which Duterte crafted when he was mayor in 2002. It took effect on July 23, 2017.

“We want to prevent them from committing violation of the law,” Defensor said on cigarette holders.

But did not discuss what will be the ICPO’s move once his order is challenged.

Recently, Councilor Alan Zaldivar, chairman of the Iloilo City Council’s Committee on Health, said he is not aware of any existing law or ordinance that prohibits a person from possessing unlit cigarettes.

He said that any order must be based on law or ordinances before it is enforced.

But Zaldivar said he will review the Iloilo City Anti-Smoking Ordinance and other pertinent laws.

He will also meet with Iñigo Garingalao, executive director of the Iloilo City Anti-Smoking Task Force (I-CAST), before he talks to Defensor

Even Garingalao earlier admitted that Defensor’s order is not anchored on the Anti-Smoking Ordinance but claimed it has “sense.”

The ICPO will set up 16 personnel screening areas in activity places, including judging areas, during the Dinagyang Festival.