Iloilo City is preparing for the incoming 2012 Red Orchid validation for smoke-free Local Government Unit (LGU).

Last year, two LGUs and two hospitals in the region received Red Orchid awards from the Department of Health (DOH) during the World No Tobacco Day.

They were Roxas City in Capiz and Buenavista in Guimaras and Western Visayas Sanitarium in Sta. Barbara, Ilolo, and Corazon Locsin Montellibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City.

Awards were given to them because of their health facilities and implementation of anti-smoking programs in their respective communities.

The World No Tobacco Day has started in 1998 and now recognizing hospitals and LGUs helping in the campaign to end tobacco-use epidemic.

CAMPAIGN

In their drive to make Iloilo City a cigarette smoke-free environment, the Iloilo City Anti-Smoking Taskforce (ICAST) is now doubling their effort to put up more signages in public places in order to inform the public of the bad effects of smoking to human health.

ICAST director Inigo Garingalao revealed that the department has arrested 3,000 persons who were caught smoking in non-smoking areas in this city since they started their operation in 2010.

Of the number, 1,500 are students, making them the top violators of the ordinance.

Garingalao finds this alarming. He said they may have come from poor families and were influenced by their peers or family members who smoke.

He added that these minors were exempted from paying penalty fees; instead, they were turned over to the City Social Welfare and Development Office, which in turn delivers them to their parents or guardians.

The next top violators are taxi and jeepney drivers, Garingalao sad.

"We cannot fully eradicate smoking because there is no such law banning smoking in the city. The current ordinance we have is a matter of regulation", he said.

Under the anti-smoking ordinance, a violator who commits the first offense will pay P500; second offense, P1,000; and subsequent offenses, P5,000.

The case will be referred to the legal department after failure to pay within three days.

An establishment caught without a designated smoking area will be fined P500 for the first offense, P1,000 for the second offense plus one-week suspension of operation and P5,000 for the third offense and recommendation of business closure.*