TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan – City Mayor Jefferson Soriano is about to issue an executive order anytime this week on banning smoking inside the compound of the city hall.
Only recently, city employees and those doing business with the local government have been allowed to smoke in designated places but an ocular inspection conducted by Soriano, accidentally, revealed the existence of cigarette butts all around the premises of the compound.
Reports said the discovery of the cigarette butts prompted the mayor to draft an order which will totally ban smoking inside the building and within the outside premises of the compound and to be issued anytime this week.
Earlier, non-smoking employees reported to Soriano fellow employees who, instead, smoked inside their respective rest rooms.
“Just the smoke alone inside those rest rooms affects us,” an employee of the Sangguniang Panlungsod who requested anonymity, said.
That was during the issuance of the first Executive Order from Soriano on smoking. The city government cannot provide data on the number of smokers among its employees.
Soriano, Vice-Mayor Bienvenido De Guzman and majority of the Sangguniang Panlungsod are non-smokers.
In Region 2, Nueva Viscaya was the first to declare a total smoking ban in the entire province through provincial ordinance No. 2010-049 or 11 years after Republic Act No. 8749 or the Philippine Clean Air Act was promulgated.
Republic Act 9211 or the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003 prohibits smoking in certain public place whether enclosed or outdoors.
Tuguegarao has yet to enact an ordinance on anti-smoking for the city.– Northernforum.net
