Palace: Aquino not yet an anti-smoking poster boy

Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said on Monday that President Beningno Simeon Aquino III has already cut down on smoking but is not yet ready to become the poster boy of the anti-smoking campaign of the Philippine Medical Association (PMA).

Lacierda said it was not fair to ask the President to lead the anti-smoking campaign when the public is fully aware that Aquino continues to smoke as a way of "de-stressing."

“This is a very stressful job and one of his ways of de-stressing is to smoke. Patuloy pa rin ang kanyang plano to cut down on smoking, let’s leave it at that," Lacierda said.

"This is part of his de-stressing and also apart from his exercise. So I cannot comment beyond that," he added.

The important thing is that Aquino has already reduced the number of cigarette sticks that he consumes daily, Lacierda said.

However, Lacierda failed to say how many cigarettes Aquino consumes a day.

The PMA earlier said Aquino should be the driving force behind an effective implementation of the World Health Organization-Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) treaty that the Philippines signed in 2005.

The group added that Aquino has the duty to safeguard the health and wellness of the Filipinos. (report from VVP, GMA News)