Tobacco-related deaths
IT’S certainly bad news that annually, 117,000 Filipinos die from tobacco-related diseases in the Philippines, a Third World nation with more than 100 million people.
Worse, the country incurs a staggering P210 billion annual economic loss due to tobacco-related hospitalization and productivity losses, according to health advocates.
The figures were taken from newspaper ads, entitled “We cannot let the tobacco industry hijack Filipinos’ health,” denouncing industry efforts to exploit the pandemic.
In a statement, public health advocates and experts, sectoral groups and frontliners said that in safeguarding the people’s health, tobacco firms are neither allies nor friends.
They urged the country’s leaders, officials and legislators to remain steadfast against moves by the tobacco industry and their fronts to ease policies on tobacco control.
At the same time, they, including ex-health secretaries., affirmed their support to the 2010 resolution of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
The DOH-CSC joint resolution was in line with the country’s obligations under the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tabacco Control (WHO-FCTC).
Under the Philippine Constitution, it is the duty of the government, through concerned state offices and agencies, to promote and protect the health of the Filipino people.
It is time to step up the pressure on the government to intensify the campaign to bring down the number of people who die from tobacco and cigarette smoking.
But the government ought to help affected Filipinos, particularly our farmers and their families who depend largely on this produce for their cash and livelihood.
