The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s (MMDA) efforts to make Metro Manila 100 percent smoke-free by 2012 received a major boost with a P9.5-million grant from a New York-based foundation.

Bloomberg Philantrophies approved the grant to finance an anti-tobacco use program aimed to make Metro Manila a 100 percent smoke-free region by 2012.

“We take pride in being chosen by The Union and the Bloomberg Philantrophies to lead this anti-smoking campaign. With the active participation of the local government units and our private sector partners, and with sustained, no-nonsense enforcement of Republic Act 9211, it is not impossible to achieve our goal of a smoke-free Metro Manila in two years’ time,” MMDA Chairman Oscar Inocentes said in an article posted on the MMDA Web site.

Inocentes and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) signed a two-year agreement approving the implementation of the MMDA’s two-year project, “Enforcement of a 100% Smoke Free Environment Policy in Metro Manila.”

The Union, a France-based non-profit scientific organization involved in a worldwide campaign to promote lung health, has endorsed for funding the MMDA’s project proposal to Bloomberg Philantrophies, the umbrella organization that manages the charitable institutions of billionaire entrepreneur-turned-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

RA 9211, the Tobacco Regulation Act, was enacted by Congress on 2003 to primarily regulate the packaging, use, sale, and distribution of harmful tobacco products.

Inocentes said the MMDA’s proposal was one of only five of the 35 project proposals submitted by several countries and approved by The Union for review of its panel of international experts.

With the Union’s recommendation, Bloomberg Philantrophies agreed to provide MMDA a financial grant of US $206,701.

Bloomberg’s grant program was launched in December 2006 to support the development and delivery of high-impact tobacco control interventions at the country level.