Nueva Vizcaya hailed for smoke-free initiatives

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines  – At least 600 individuals have been caught smoking in public places here since the province’s smoking ban took effect in November last year.

This, as the provincial government intensified its campaign for a smoke-free province after it bagged a Department of Health (DOH) award for its initiatives.

Senior Superintendent Elmer Beltejar, provincial police director and anti-smoking task force head, said those caught smoking in public places were penalized under the province’s smoke-free ordinance.

Under the ordinance, a violator is fined as much as P5,000 or faces jail term or both, or made to render community service.

Any establishment allowing smoking within its premises faces the same penalty or revocation of its business permit.

Beltejar said the commercial town of Solano, the first to adopt such an ordinance, has had the highest number of violators. 

“It is probably in Solano where the (no-smoking) ordinance has been most successfully enforced, which is a big feat in itself considering that people from all parts of the province and elsewhere converge here every day,” said Solano councilor Regie Valino-Valdez, chairman of the municipal council’s health committee.  

Last May 31, the DOH handed the province the Red Orchid Award for its initiatives in having a smoke-free environment.

Dr. Edwin Galapon of the provincial health office said Nueva Vizcaya was the only province given the award this year, which also coincided with the World Health Organization-led World No-Tobacco Day.

The Red Orchid Award was also given to 13 other towns, including Solano, Dupax del Norte and Dupax del Sur here.

The award is named after the red orchid, which survives only in a smoke-free environment.

The provincial board, led by Vice Gov. Jose Gambito, passed the ordinance last year to eliminate smoking in public places and eventually transform Nueva Vizcaya into a smoke-free province. 

The Solano municipal government led by Mayor Philip Dacayo, the first local government in the region to adopt a no-smoking ordinance, was the first recipient of the DOH’s White Orchid Award, a prerequisite for one to qualify for the higher Red Orchid Award.