Ilocos solon hits anti-tobacco group’s claim

By Teddy Molina

CANDON CITY -- Deputy Speaker Eric Singson (second district, Ilocos Sur) dismissed as “unprofessional” and “baseless” the claim of an anti-tobacco group pointing to him as responsible for the death of more than 65,000 Filipinos for the last nine months for his role in halting the passage of a controversial bill requiring picture-based warnings placed on cigarette packs.

In a recent news report, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance of the Philippines (FCAP) was quoted as saying Singson “should be made responsible for the death of 65,040 Filipinos because of tobacco-caused diseases since the bill was filed on Dec. 20.”

House Bill 3364 requires the printing of picture-based health warnings on the pack of cigarettes. The picture would portray various diseases caused by smoking in an attempt to influence smokers to quit  the habit and for the uninitiated not to start smoking.

FCAP and other similarly oriented groups are lobbying for the bill’s immediate enactment. They said that the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), an affiliate of the World Health Organization, had set Sept. 4 this year as deadline for countries to adopt graphic or  picture-based health warnings.

A staunch defender of the tobacco industry, Singson said “the accusation blaming me for the deaths due to cigarette-related diseases is “baseless, malicious and unprofessional and should be  censored.”

He said that it is his duty to protect the livelihood of tobacco farmers in his province whom he said have been planting the crop for a long time. Local observers noted that the measure adversely affects the industry saying that graphic health warnings on cigarettes would lead  to the eradication of tobacco farming.

Singson earned the ire of FCAP and related groups when he led a group of congressmen-members of the House committee on Health in trouncing HB 3364 at the committee’s technical working group hearing recently.

A consensus voting was held, Singson said, and the result had 24 going against the bill while only eight supported it.

The deputy speaker afterwards said “the bill is dead.” This did not sit well with the private sector endorsers of the bill with FCAP executive director Maricar Limpin deploring Singson’s allegation.

He denied FCAP’s allegation that the FCTC had imposed a deadline for the adaption of graphic health warning labels worldwide saying the same body did not make such labels to adorn cigarette packs compulsory.

“With regard to the cited health warning provision, the word used in the FCTC agreement is ‘may be’, so how can you impose this without violating the rights of concerned parties,” he asked.

Singson looks forward to the convening of the House committee on health where he said he would ”ventilate” fully the issues involved regarding the controversial bill.

He said Sen. Pia Cayetano, author of a similar measure in the Senate admitted the non-mandatory character of the provision when asked by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile during a hearing on her bill.