Smokers in Quezon City heed national smoking ban 

No smokers were seen smoking along the busy section of EDSA  in Quezon City's Cubao district early morning on Sunday, the first day of the enforcement of the nationwide smoking ban.

DzBB's Many Vargas reported that no smoker was seen with lighted cigarette in hand on sidewalks, small corners and alleys along EDSA, as well as along Aurora Boulevard.

But the report noted that dzBB's news team saw a driver smoking at a parking area.

When asked, the driver claimed that he was unaware of the nationwide smoking ban.

President Rodrigo Duterte signed EO  26, titled “Providing for the Establishment of Smoke-free Environments in Public and Enclosed Places,” on  May 16, and it was published on May 23.

The EO was set to take effect on July 23, 2017.

Section 3 of the EO lists down acts that are considered unlawful and prohibited, namely:

• Smoking within enclosed public places and public conveyances, whether stationary or in motion, except in designated smoking areas (DSAs)
• Allowing, abetting, or tolerating smoking in prohibited areas
• Smoking, selling, or buying tobacco products by minors
• Selling, distributing, or purchasing tobacco products while using the defense that one didn't know the real age of a minor or didn't know nor had any reason to believe that the product would be consumed by a minor
• Ordering, instructing, or compelling a minor to use, light up, buy, sell, distribute, deliver, advertise, or promote tobacco products
• Selling or distributing tobacco products in a school, public playground, youth hostels, and recreational facilities for minors, including those frequented by minors, or within 100 meters from any point of the perimeter of these places
• Placing, posting, displaying, or distributing advertisement and promotional materials of tobacco products, such as but not limited to leaflets, posters, display structures, and other materials within 10 meters from the perimeter of a school, public playground, and other facilities frequented particularly by minors, hostel, and recreational facilities for minors, including those frequented by them, or in an establishment when its location is prohibited from selling tobacco products
• Placing any form of tobacco advertisement outside of the premises of point-of-sale retail establishments
• Placing any stall, booth, and other displays concerning tobacco promotions to areas outside the premises of point-of-sale locations or adult-only facilities

—LBG, GMA News