Press Release - Pia dismayed over 5th Dirty Ashtray award received by the Philippines

Mr. President, I rise on a matter of personal and collective privilege. For the 5th time, the Philippines has received the Dirty Ashtray award. The reason is we were blocking global tobacco control efforts. When I say we, it is a great embarrassment to me, your honor, that the representatives for us, for the Philippines, stood before a global audience of mostly health advocates, and they advocated for the tobacco industry, Mr. President.

The Global Alliance for Tobacco Control again awarded the notorious Dirty Ashtray to the Philippine delegation on the last day of the 10th session of the Conference of Parties, otherwise known as COP10, to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, otherwise known as the WHO-FCTC, held in Panama City from February 5-10. The FCTC is a treaty negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organization created in response to the tobacco epidemic. The treaty has 168 signatories, and 180 parties, including the Philippines. The Philippines ratified the FCTCon February 22, 2005. According to the WHO, the FCTC provides a global response to the global tobacco epidemic, it described the FCTC as an evidence-based treaty that reaffirms all people's right to the highest standard of health. Regular sessions of the COP are held every two years.

The Philippine delegation this year was given the Dirty Ashtray award for its brazen use of tobacco industry tactics to dispute and delay throughout COP10. According to the Southeast Asian Tobacco Control Alliance, otherwise known as SEATCA, after almost 3 days of deliberation, parties failed to achieve consensus to establish an expert group to facilitate the implementation of FCTC articles 9 and 10 on the regulation and disclosure of the contents and emission of tobacco products. With the Philippines joining a minority of parties blocking consensus.

What is article 9 and article 10? Article 9 deals with the testing and measuring of the content and emission of tobacco products and regulation. My dear colleagues, mga kababayan, sino ba may ayaw na i-test at sukatin ang laman ng tobacco products? Bakit ayaw? Bakit ayaw ipa-test? Ano ba laman nun? Ayaw ipaalam sa atin. Bakit naman tayo may