ATTY. DEBBY SY, HealthJustice
DR. YUL DOROTHEO, SouthEast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance
Congratulations to the Department of Education for this huge step towards banning all tobacco industry donations to public schools. The recently issued memo adopts the Civil Service Commission and Department of Health (CSC-DOH) Joint Memo to Protect the Bureaucracy against Tobacco Industry Interference. Among others, the policy also requires all public officials and employees of the education sector to report all offers/ attempts to interact made by the tobacco industry. Violation of the order is a ground for administrative sanctions.
The public school sector, particularly in rural areas, is resource-strapped and has traditionally accepted all forms of donation. There is some level of "sacrifice" in monetary terms because the tobacco industry invests substantial amount of money in public school donations annually. But in this memo, DepEd has proven that the school children's health and morals are more important... that it is more important to protect children from tobacco industry deception.( or any perception that the tobacco industry can aggressively promote a product that kills and yet be good corporate citizens)
The attached DepEd Order follows closely the CSC-DOH Joint Memo rules (e.g. avoid interaction with tobacco industry, avoid conflict of interest, divest financial interest, etc), and is in line with recommendations of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Guidelines for Article 5.3 (Tobacco Industry Interference).
Let's support the DepEd in their endeavor to give priority to public health and morals.
I hope we can start by congratulating DepEd for choosing health over tobacco funds. And maybe, we can also commit to campaign around encouraging non-tobacco-private sector donations to public schools that are in need of support.
Letters should be addressed to the Secretary of Education:
DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro, FSC (Dep Ed, Meralco Avenue, Pasig City)
Finally, congratulations to our champions in government and the team who worked so hard to make this happen! The CSC-DOH Joint Memo has indeed come a long way!
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