Regional Updates

Press Release: CAMBODIA MOVEMENT FOR HEALTH Phnom Penh, 20 July 2012: Starting 1st Aug 2021 onwards, all cigarette packs sold in Cambodia shall have new pictorial health warnings as determined by the Ministry of Health (MoH). According to the Prakas of the MoH, pictorial health warning (PHW) on cigarette packs must be changed every two …

Cigarette packs in Cambodia to have new pictorial warnings from 1st Aug 2021 Read More »

15 July 2021 Anna Bueno. Source: Rappler ‘For decades, it is the [tobacco] industry and its front groups that have lied, deceived, and manipulated the public and policymakers in order to advance their own commercial interests, instead of saving lives’ Weeks before the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), front groups for the tobacco …

[OPINION] Tobacco, vape groups are bullying public health advocates in a pandemic Read More »

11 July 2021 Cheryl Goh. Source: Channel News Asia Video Singapore’s smoking rate dropped from 10.6 per cent in 2019 to 10.1 per cent last year – just shy of its target to reduce smoking to below 10 per cent. Cheryl Goh finds out if the COVID-19 pandemic is hindering or helping this goal.

8 July 2021 Source: BusinessMirror Economic think tank Action for Economic Reforms (AER) slammed Ilocos Sur Mayor Chavit Singson for criticizing the recent tobacco-tax increases. In a radio interview, Singson claimed that Senator Manny Pacquiao should not have pushed for higher tobacco taxes, as high tax rates would “kill the tobacco industry.” “Anything na sobra, …

Philippines: Singson’s tobacco tax remarks blasted by think tank Read More »

3 June 2021 Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer Public health advocates led by four former secretaries of the Department of Health (DOH) marked World No Tobacco Day this year with an emphatic condemnation of the tobacco industry, which they accused of employing insidious schemes to loosen tobacco control policies amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic. In a …

Philippines: ‘Neither allies nor friends’ Read More »

30 May 2021 Source: Business world FORMER health secretaries, medical sector groups and health advocates have slammed the tobacco industry for strategies that allegedly aim to ease tobacco control policies in the country. In a statement on Sunday, they affirmed their support to Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) 2010-01 signed by the Department of Health and …

Philippines: Former health chiefs, medical sector groups denounce tobacco industry’s ‘tactics’ to ease government control Read More »

30 May 2021 Anna Bueno. Source: Philstar In case you didn’t know, there’s a website dedicated to 14 million documents that expose the tobacco industry’s history of lying, manipulation and propaganda. The Truth Tobacco Industry Documents , formerly known as the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (housed under the University of California, San Francisco) contain internal corporate documents …

Commentary: How the tobacco industry wrote the ‘fake news’ playbook Read More »

2 June 2021 Cristina Eloisa Baclig. Source: Inquirer MANILA, Philippines—Every June, the Philippines celebrates No Smoking Month, during which Filipinos are being encouraged to stop smoking or consuming tobacco products. Worldwide, the movement to stop smoking has gained momentum but it would be interesting to know how the now much-derided cigarette came to being. In …

Tobacco use in PH: Health, income going up in smoke Read More »

31 May 2021 Kristine Fonacier, Source: Eco-Business Without the proper safeguards in place, a bill that incentivises CSR programs might instead open the door to highly regulated tobacco and allow corporations to whitewash their activities and exert political influence. Image: Eco-Business A bill that financially incentivises businesses to make positive social change is close to …

Is the Philippines’ CSR Bill a Trojan Horse for corporate interests? Read More »