The
Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) gave a plaque of appreciation
to Davao City not only for its anti-smoking policy but also for the efficient
implementation of such policy during the two-day Regional Workshop on
Smoke-Free Laws which opened at the SM Convention Center in Lanang Monday.
SEATCA
is an alliance of various sectors coming from ten Asian countries that aims to
help the member-countries fast track and establish tobacco control policies.
“We
have an eight-country (Asian) delegate to this Workshop hoping to learn from
Davao City’s successful implementation of its smoke-free city campaign for many
years,” SEATCA director Bungon Ritthiphakdee said in an interview. Other cities
have good laws and policies on smoking control but the problem is the
implementation, she added.
She
said the different countries have different regulations when it comes to
controlling smoking. Others follow the national law which they implement in the
local or city level, she said, and this is where the problem starts in
implementing it at the city level.
“What
Davao can share to the other countries is its 100 percent implementation of
smoke-free public places,” she said. Asian countries also implement the smoke-free
policy in hospitals, schools and workplace, she said, but the challenge is how
to implement it in the restaurants, nightclubs and outdoor public places.
The
Asian countries can learn from Davao’s mechanisms, legislative measures,
manpower, political will and how media supported the smoke-free policy.
“Even
in Thailand we have a strong tobacco-control law but the problem is how to
enforce it in restaurants and nightclubs,” she said. Even the policemen in
charge of implementing the law do not have a good standard of practice, she
said.
Ritthiphakdee
said Davao will be a very good model and leader for the smoke-free cities
campaign. The key issue here, she said, is that Davao started the smoke-free
city campaign a long time ago but the compliance and enforcement are still
there even up to now.
