21 September 2026
By Mia Magdalena Fokno – Rappler
In its long history of tobacco control, Baguio City has treated tobacco use as the public health issue that it is, and not merely as an enforcement issue
BAGUIO, Philippines – Long before Baguio won gold from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for keeping its public spaces smoke-free, the city was already telling people where they could not light a cigarette.
That story began in 1966.
Sixty years later, a succession of ordinances, tougher enforcement, community participation, and public health programs has turned what began as a smoking ban inside theaters and movie houses into one of the region’s recognized local tobacco-control programs.
The latest recognition came last September 10, when Baguio received the Gold Award at the second ASEAN Smoke-Free Awards.
It capped a remarkable run that includes a World Health Organization Healthy Cities award for the Smoke-Free Baguio campaign in 2021, a Bloomberg Philanthropies tobacco-control award in 2025, the WHO World No Tobacco Day Award in 2026, and, just days before the ASEAN ceremony, another WHO Healthy Cities award for the city’s use of local data to address health and social inequities.
But Baguio’s smoke-free story was built over decades, not around a single ordinance or administration.
When it all started
The city’s earliest documented anti-smoking measure was Ordinance No. 433 in September 1966, which prohibited smoking inside theaters and movie houses.
In 1974, Ordinance No. 596 extended restrictions to public utility vehicles.
The city widened the coverage again in 1989 through Ordinance No. 24, which included public conveyances, theaters, assembly halls, hospital rooms and corridors, government offices, and classrooms.
Restaurants and eateries were eventually brought under local smoking regulations, while later amendments strengthened requirements such as posting anti-smoking signs.
By 2008, Baguio had adopted Ordinance No. 8, known as the Comprehensive Anti-Smoking Ordinance.
It prohibited smoking in public transportation, government vehicles, accommodation and entertainment establishments, public buildings, public places, and other enclosed areas outside private residences and certain private workplaces, while allowing designated smoking areas under prescribed conditions.