A very interesting article.
Source: ABS-CBN
Congressmen got cash to oppose anti-smoking graphic warning bill - ABS-CBN
January 18, 2009
Aries Rufo
On
June 10, 2008, at the House of Representatives, the health committee’s
technical working group (TWG) was set to meet on House Bill (HB) 3364.
Congressmen flocked to Room 14 of the Ramon V. Mitra Building, where
the meeting was being held, going against their known practice of
leaving technical guys alone to fine-tune bills and just discussing
them in the plenary.
The bill, however, was not an ordinary
bill; a lot was at stake, at least as far as the 34 congressmen who sat
in were concerned.
The proposal being taken up was for “An
Act to Effectively Instill Health Consciousness Through Picture-based
Health Warnings on Tobacco Products.” Should it become law, HB 3364
will require tobacco companies to put on their product wrappers
photographs of diseases or disabilities caused by smoking, as a form of
warning buyers what they may be getting.
Lobby money
Based on Newsbreak’s interviews with lawmakers privy to the meeting,
most, if not all, of their colleagues who showed up at the technical
meeting were intent on killing the graphic health warning bill.
Insiders confirmed that lawmakers who argued against the proposal
received cash from a colleague for their efforts.
A lawmaker,
who gave the interview on condition of anonymity, said lawmakers in the
meeting were given P20,000 each to register opposition to the bill. The
money was handed by a colleague, but it wasn’t clear to who the real
source of the money was.
“It is rather cheap but that’s how it goes,” the lawmaker said.
A source, who admitted getting P20,000, said money was not the main
consideration in opposing HB 3364. “It is about pakikisama.” The source
said a lawmaker sides with colleagues “whose constituents may be
affected by the bill” so he or she can, in turn, count on the support
of these colleagues when he or she is pushing for another bill.
“It is how the system works in the House,” the lawmaker said.
Why graphic warnings
The use of graphic health warnings is recommended by the World Health
Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), to which
the Philippines is a signatory.
Article 11 of the FCTC
requires that signatory-countries adopt effective health warnings on
tobacco products by September 2008. A month after the deadline, the
Philippines was among the Southeast Asian countries that had not
complied. Around the world, about 15 countries have introduced
pictorial health warnings on tobacco products.
The House and
the Senate were both aware of the September 2008 deadline for adopting
the graphic health warning measure under the international framework
convention on tobacco control. Senator Pia Cayetano scheduled hearings
on Senate Bill (SB) 2377, or the “Picture-based Warning on Cigarette
Package” bill, while Northern Samar Rep. Paul Daza filed a counterpart
measure.
While a number of senators are known to be
smokers—among them Senators Rodolfo Biazon, Francis Escudero, and
Jinggoy Estrada—SB 2377 did not meet strong resistance in the chamber.
The measure is being deliberated on second reading in the plenary.
While a recent leadership change in the Senate caused a reshuffle in
committee chairmanships, the bill is still expected to be approved.
Cayetano has yielded the heath committee panel to Senator Loren Legarda.
Parochial politics
The parochial politics of some congressmen, however, proved to be a stumbling block.
Thirty-four congressmen, including party-list representatives, came to
the TWG meeting on June 10; oppositionists outnumbered the bill’s
sponsors.
Deputy Speaker and Ilocos Sur Rep. Eric Singson
sought to delete the title of the bill, a move that could virtually
kill the bill. Legislators from Northern Luzon, where tobacco farming
in the country is concentrated, were present and supported Singson’s
manifestation. Lawmakers from the Visayas and Mindanao backed them up.
While HB 3364 is basically a health bill, a transcript of the
proceeding showed that those opposed to the bill focused their
arguments on the economic issues. They cited alleged disastrous effects
on the livelihood of tobacco farmers if it is passed.
Their
logic was: if consumers are frightened by the graphic health warnings,
the sales of tobacco products would go down, and the demand for tobacco
harvested in the provinces will decline as well.
Iloilo Rep.
Janette Garin argued that the tobacco sector has problems that would
have economic implications, and the graphic health warning bill is not
addressing them.
Leyte Rep. Trinidad Apostol said that the
current text warnings on cigarette packs are sufficient, and anything
beyond that, as the bill proposes, would run counter to government
efforts to promote livelihood.
Deputy Speaker and Cebu City
Rep. Raul del Mar quibbled on issues like the kind of pictures that
will be placed on cigarette packs, which of these pictures will be
displayed more constantly, and who will design the warnings.
The critics also raised questions on the truthfulness of the proposed
graphic warnings. Garin, a medical doctor, said the diseases to be
depicted on cigarette packs are not necessarily caused by tobacco
smoke.
Albay Rep. Al Francis Bichara said that many
lifestyle-related deaths could be attributed to high cholesterol levels
and not to smoking. He noted that many smokers die of old age, while
there are non-smokers who die early.
DOH reprimanded
Their attacks extended to a resource speaker at the TWG meeting. Dr.
Franklin Diza of the Department of Health’s National Center for Disease
Prevention Control, said he “got scolded and reprimanded” by
congressmen when he argued for the passage of the bill.
The
opposition that lawmakers demonstrated on June 10 was a surprise to
Diza. He noted that most of those who showed up at the TWG meeting
never attended the four committee hearings before that.
“But when they found the bill was gaining support, the congressmen from the North and their supporters attended,” he observed.
Diza acknowledged that aside from the Northern Luzon bloc of lawmakers,
the lobby of the tobacco industry “is also strong.” He said the
“tobacco industry has friends in Congress.”
We sought to
interview three of the congressmen who openly objected to the passage
of the graphic health warning bill—Eric Singson (2nd district, Ilocos
Sur), Ronald Singson (1st district, Ilocos Sur) and Roque Ablan (1st
district, Ilocos Norte)—but they begged off.
Same opposition group
Maricar Limpin, executive director of the Framework Convention on
Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines, noted that those who are opposed
to HB 3364 were also the ones who objected to the bill that proposed
text health warning on tobacco products a few years ago. The text
warning bill, however, encountered less resistance.
Packaged
as a trade bill, that measure took only more than a year to be passed,
Diza noted. One factor the measure faced smooth passage was that “they
believed it (text warning) would not be effective anyway.”
The
bill, adopted in 2003, became Republic Act 9211 or the Tobacco Control
Act. It sets guidelines and regulation for the packaging, sale,
distribution, and advertising of tobacco products. Among others, it
mandates the printing on the package or wrapper—in English or
Filipino—texts that warn of the ill-effects of smoking.
Text-only warning has no impact
But five years of the law’s implementation showed text warnings to have little effect in discouraging tobacco consumption.
“The text-only warning has no impact,” said Limpin. She cited a global
youth survey, conducted by the World Health Organizatioin (WHO), which
showed that the prevalence of smoking among Filipino youth even
increased from 15 percent in 2003 to almost 22 percent in 2007.
The increase in smoking prevalence shows that “we are not winning the
war. We have to institute drastic measures to curb the tobacco
epidemic,” she said.
Limpin said the text warning should be
printed on the front and back of the package to be more effective, but
the law requires that for only one side of the panel or package.
Besides, says Diza of the health department, the text warnings are in
English, alienating the poor who do not understand the language.
Pictorial warnings shock
Even then, by the time RA 9211 was passed in 2003, the provision on
text warning was considered outdated. Studies conducted by the Canadian
Cancer Society as early as 2001 established that pictorial warnings
were more effective in discouraging smoking. Around that time, Canada
and Brazil had adopted pictorial warnings, while other nations had
begun similar moves.
In one study, half of the 2,031 Canadian
adults who were surveyed, said the new health warnings increased their
motivation to quit smoking. Among the smokers, 21 percent who were
tempted to have a cigarette decided not to because of the graphic
warnings.
The survey also showed that the most effective
graphic warnings were those depicting a diseased mouth and a lung
tumor. Canada was the first country to use graphic health warnings on
tobacco products.
The Association of European Cancer Leagues
stressed that visual images on the negative effects of smoking “convey
shock, immediacy and empathy” as “smokers tend to favor ‘shock’ images
that are disturbing or unpleasant to look at.”
Shocking images a threat
The preliminary findings of an about-to-be-released study conducted
among Filipino youth in 2008, a copy of which was obtained by
Newsbreak, boosts this contention. Majority of the respondents said
they found visual warnings more effective in making them realize the
dangers of smoking. The graphic design, Filipino youths said, had
better ability to convey the health risks related to smoking and some
said it actually stopped them from buying cigarettes.
The
effectiveness of visual warnings may not be felt among longtime
smokers, but this definitely poses serious threat on creating new
markets for the tobacco industry, Limpin said. To sustain its market,
the tobacco industry, she noted, has been aggressively promoting
cigarette use among the youth.
“The industry knows that the introduction of graphic warnings threatens its future market,” Limpin said.
But with ardent allies in the House, the tobacco industry need not worry in the meantime.
Source: ABS-CBN
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