Philippines President Duterte now to enforce smoking ban

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday said a nationwide smoking ban will be implemented.

Duterte said he will sign the executive order prepared by the Department of Health (DOH) on the matter, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Yes, it will be followed and the implementation will follow the Davao experience," he told the media in southern Davao City before leaving for Brunei.

Duterte, who had been a mayor of Davao for 23 years, had imposed smoking ban in the city.

"If you want to smoke, find a place where it is allowed," the President said.

He said statistics would show that many Filipinos die of smoking.

The Department of Health, citing a report of the World Health Organization in 2005, has said the use of tobacco continues to be a major cause of health problems worldwide.

During that period, there were an estimated 1.3 billion smokers in the world, with 4.9 million people dying because of tobacco use in a year.

If the trend continues, the number of deaths would increase to 10 million by the year 2020, 70 per cent of which would be coming from countries like the Philippines, the Department of Health said.

--IANS

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