Doctor reminds smoker PNoy that father Ninoy had heart attacks

“Ang father niya nagka-heart attack, ang mother niya (former President Cory Aquino) nagkaroon ng colon cancer. Past 50 na ang pangulo, stressful ang job. So very high-risk (ang President)," Leachon said at a DOH press briefing about tobacco control policies, including the sin tax bill that the DOH is advocating.   Aquino, 52, is the Philippines' youngest president since Ferdinand Marcos was elected in 1965 at the age of 48. Aquino was just 50 when he assumed office in 2010, and is considered to be in good health.  Yet Aquino has never been known as a health buff, and his father's medical history, as Leachon asserts, should be a cause for worry. Ninoy Aquino had a heart attack in 1980 at the age of 47, after seven years as a political prisoner. He had a second one while confined at the Philippine Heart Center in the same year. He was assassinated in 1983 at the age of 50 as he returned from exile in the United States, where he had heart surgery.  One of the rare times President Aquino has spoken publicly about his smoking was after he and US President Barack Obama talked briefly about it in 2010.  "I told him, 'Mr. President, I understand we have the same issue with smoking.' He said, 'I've quit that already. That's your sole problem,'" Aquino told reporters with a smile.  Health advocates have been attempting to convince Aquino to quit smoking to set an example for a nation with among the highest prevalence of smoking in the world.  Sin tax Despite his habit, Aquino considers the sin tax bill a priority. “Whether the President smokes or not, that is irrelevant in our fight [to pass the Sin Tax bill,]” Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said at a briefing. Lacierda declined to say if the president will stop smoking.  “(The sin tax) is primarily a policy issue which fundamentally affects the poor who have limited access to medical services. The President has in fact prioritized this measure,” Lacierda said.    The House of Representatives already approved the sin tax bill in June while committee deliberations for the bill’s proposed amendments are still ongoing in the Senate. The bill proposes a tax for cigarettes that will make them more expensive, which is expected to decrease the number of smokers in the country, pegged at around 28 million by the DOH.   “It will discourage smoking, especially for the young and the very poor,” DOH Secretary Enrique Ona said. – Gian Geronimo/ Patricia Denise Chiu/ Howie Severino, GMA News