THE Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) yesterday assailed Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa over his interaction and photo opportunity with tobacco company executives despite the prohibition of smoking jointly mandated by the Department of Health (DOH) and the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
In a statement, SEATCA executive director Dr. Ulysses Dorotheo criticized Herbosa for fraternizing with the top brass of a tobacco company during a recent event in Malacañang.
“Worse than the hypocrisy of the tobacco industry (in donating mobile clinics while causing deaths and diseases) is the lack of integrity of the Secretary of Health attending this event and posing happily for a group photo, trading public health principles and ethics for political convenience, and violating CSC-DOH Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 2010-01,” said Dorotheo.
“I consider Secretary Ted Herbosa a colleague and mentor, but I do not mince words when I say he has lost all credibility,” he added.
The SEATCA chief pointed out that CSC-DOH JMC 2010-00, “explicitly mandates government officials to avoid unnecessary interactions with and prohibits accepting donations from the tobacco industry.”
Dorotheo added such actions by the health chief put in serious question its credibility to serve as president of the World Health Assembly (WHA), which will be held in Geneva, Switzerland in May 2025.
“The Philippines, under this government, does not deserve to lead the World Health Assembly,” said Dorotheo.
The SEATCA issued the statement after pictures of Herbosa posing side by side with PMFTC officials as well as First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian in Malacañang during the event were published in newspapers and posted on social media.
The event saw the government receiving four mobile clinics donated by the PMFTC to be used for the “Lab For All” project of the DOH and Araneta-Marcos.
