Tagbilaran City councilors are set to thresh out several provisions under the proposed anti-smoking ordinance to pave way to a smooth implementation of the legislation which is expected to affect a slew of residents and businesses.
According to Vice Mayor Jose Antiono Veloso who sits as the Tagbilaran City Council’s presiding officer, a special session has been scheduled in a bid to refine several issues under the proposed ordinance sponsored by Councilor Ondoy Borja, chair of the council’s health committee.
Local legislators have shifted focus to identify key locations across Tagbilaran City for holding designated smoking areas which would not be a nuisance to the general public.
The council also intends to identify means to strictly enforce the law while preventing implementing authorities from committing rights violations against those who are caught smoking in public, Veloso said.
The Tagbilaran City Sannguniang Panlungsod and several municipal councils across Bohol have started efforts to craft their own legislative measures which would prohibit smoking in public as support to Executive Order (EO) No. 26 which implements a nationwide smoking ban.
The EO was signed on May 16 by President Duterte and started to take effect on July 23.
“Public places means all places, fixed or mobile, that are accessible or open to the public or places for collective use, regardless of ownership or right to access, including but not limited to schools, workplaces, government facilities, establishments that provide food and drinks, accommodation, merchandise, professional services, entertainment or other services. It also includes outdoor spaces where facilities are available for public or where a crowd of people would gather, such as, but not limited to, playgrounds, sports grounds or centers, church grounds, health/hospital compounds, transportation terminals, markets, resorts, walkways/sidewalks, entrance ways, waiting areas and the like,” the EO reads.
Public conveyances such as elevators, airplanes, ships, jeepneys, buses, taxicabs, trains, light rail transits, tricycles and other similar vehicles are also covered by the smoking ban. (AD)