Press Release - Cayetano, Pia: Interpellation with Sen. Joel Villanueva on 5th Dirty Ashtray Award received by the Philippines

*Period of Interpellations*

[Sen Villanueva]

Mr President, my staff is looking up the number for the death and serious health effects of tobacco on people, whether it's worldwide or nationwide. But I have something else to say in addition to that. WHO estimates that more than 8 million people die prematurely yearly from tobacco use. This is the latest available WHO estimates as of November 2023.

I am not sure if we have Philippine data.

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And then I have a local... Tobacco was the highest risk factor driving the most deaths and disabilities combined in 2019. I repeat, the highest risk factor. In other words, it's not obesity. It's not having a particular condition. Nakadagdag ang tobacco use sa mga death and disability data that we have. It was estimated that tobacco use accounted for more than 112,000 deaths or 27% of all deaths in the Philippines. Of tobacco deaths, 96,000 or 85% were attributed to smoking. And 22,000 or 19% were secondhand smoking. So when a member of the family, and usually it's a parent, is smoking, pwede hong magkaroon ng lung disease or tobacco-related disease ang mga anak or even an elderly living in that family, kahit siya mismo ay hindi naninigarilyo. And if his honor would recall, I would often recount my own experience as a pregnant young lawyer, forced to attend board meetings among a smoking group. And nobody even bothered to ask, "are you okay, do you mind?"

But thankfully, we passed that law, hindi pa tayo senator... when the law was passed prohibiting indoor smoking. So at least we can honestly protect the younger generation of women who are pregnant, and for that matter, kahit hindi naman women. But the numbers are there. And remember, these are just reported cases. Paano pa yung mga probinsya sa malalayong lugar na hindi na na-autopsy o hindi na nakarating sa ospital? I am sure marami pa yan, Mr. President.

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Yes, Mr President. And if I may give a short response to the Majority Floor Leader's data that he shared with us, yung iba't ibang sakit na binanggit niyo na nakakamatay, hindi ho ba yan eh kadalasan, those people who are afflicted are those people who come to us who also ask for financial assistance, medical