MANILA, Philippines – Starting next week, smokers will be unwelcome in public places along major and secondary roads of the metropolis.
Officers from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), together with the 17 local government units (LGU) of Metro Manila, will prohibit lighting up in bus terminals, waiting sheds, shcools, hospitals, recreational places and inside public utility vehicles starting May 30 as part of a joint campaing to protect Filipinos from secondhand smoke. The smoking ban came just in time for the World No Tobacco Day celebration on June 1. New York-based Bloomberg Philanthropies has approved a P9.5-million grant for the program.