Health advocates to gov’t: Cut ties with tobacco industry amid rising interference

Public health and child rights advocates on Thursday urged the government anew to sever its connections with the tobacco industry, warning that the continued influence of “Big Tobacco” firms will undermine public health policies and endanger future generations.

They made the renewed appeal as the country observes National Children’s Month and ahead of the 11th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC COP11) to be held this month in Geneva, Switzerland.

Citing the newly released 2025 Tobacco Industry Interference (TII) Index Report, advocacy group HealthJustice expressed alarm over the Philippines’ worsening score in tobacco interference, which rose from 60 in 2023 to 70 this year.

HealthJustice said this reflected deeper industry penetration into government policymaking and public partnerships.

“Every year, 112,000 Filipino lives are lost due to smoking, and the economy squanders P23.1 billion to smoking-related health expenses. This is the tragic cost of allowing the tobacco industry to weaken public health policy,” said Mary Ann Fernandez-Mendoza, president of HealthJustice and a former commissioner of the Civil Service Commission.

“The nation does not deserve weak laws and compromised reforms that protect business interests instead of the Filipino people,” she added.

Mendoza said the report reveals how the tobacco industry continues to interfere through policy participation and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs that “disguise harmful intent under public goodwill.”

“The interference of the tobacco industry in our health policies has worsened. Unless government and civil society act together to end this industry that kills people, the problem will persist,” she said. “Our policymakers are duty-bound to defend lives, not private gain.”

The WHO FCTC Secretariat earlier cautioned governments to remain vigilant against the tobacco industry’s intensified lobbying and manipulation efforts in the lead-up to COP11.

Dr. Ulysses Dorotheo, executive director of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA), urged the country’s leaders to take a firm stance against the tobacco industry’s domestic and international influence.

“If the Philippine government is serious about protecting the health of all Filipinos, particularly the youth, then it must rise above complacency and stop promoting tobacco industry interests,” Dorotheo said.

“At COP11, the Philippines should redeem itself as a tobacco control leader by championing measures to achieve a tobacco-free future – not be a mouthpiece for the industry and risk another ‘Dirty Ashtray’ award,” he added.

Meanwhile, Child Rights Network (CRN) Convenor Ma. Aurora Quilala condemned what she described as deliberate efforts by tobacco companies to weaken regulations on tobacco and nicotine products.

“Every deliberate step by the tobacco industry to water down policies deprives our children of a healthier future,” Quilala said. 

“The Filipino youth deserve government leaders who put people’s health and welfare first over profit,” she added.

The 2025 TII Index Report was formally launched on Thursday in Quezon City. The launch was attended by public health advocates including ex-health secretaries Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan and Dr. Paulyn Jean Ubial and Baguio City’s Smoke-Free Task Force led by Dr. Donnabel Tubera-Panes.

Advocates said the growing evidence of industry interference underscores the urgent need for transparency, stronger enforcement of the WHO FCTC, and the exclusion of tobacco companies from any government partnership or policymaking process.

The Philippines recorded one million new smokers and vapers aged 10 to 19 years old in 2023, prompting youth advocates to launch a campaign calling out the tobacco industry’s targeted marketing tactics.

The 2023 National Nutrition Survey of the Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) noted that there are about over 8 million global tobacco-related deaths every year and over 15 million adult smokers in the Philippines. — JMA, GMA Integrated News