Posts Tagged ‘mmda’
MMDA Receives 9.5 Million for Anti-Smoking Campaign
The world is polluted enough and the air we breathe is tainted as it is and smoking cigarettes as well as other tobacco peripherals simply does not help our failing health. Our bodies’ defenses against the harmful elements of the streets stacked up against them as we brace the clogged streets around the metro are getting weaker everyday and smokers have it worse as well as those who helplessly inhale second-hand smoke. The health hazards and damaging implications are so severe that our government decides to step up as it granted the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority the reins to this daunting task.
Good thing that Bloomberg Philanthropies, established and owned by billionaire entrepreneur and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, decided to give a grant to help the anti-tobacco use program aiming to make Metro Manila a 100% smoke-free zone by 2012. MMDA Chairman Oscar Inocentes signed a deal with the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease or The Union which funds the government program “Enforcement of a 100% Smoke Free Environment Policy in Metro Manila” with $206,701.00 or 9.5 million pesos. The funds will go to advertising as well as no-nonsense enforcement of revised and stricter laws in cooperation with local government units and partners in the private and commercial sector.
The Union is a French non-profit, scientific organization that is focused primarily on promoting lung health in a global scale. This two-year program that will be spearheaded by the MMDA in cooperation with local government units and the police force is backed by constitutional provisions as stated in RA 9211 or the Tobacco Regulation Act, enacted primarily to regulate the packaging, use, sale, and distribution of harmful tobacco products.