CAGAYAN de Oro's Smoke-Free Task Force has launched on Monday, October 1, the long-overdue smoking ban, but Councilor Ma. Lourdes Gaane said the ban will only focus in government offices within the city and no arrests of violators will be made for now.
Gaane, the task force chairperson admitted that the city-wide implementation will be difficult without a localized ordinance and especially, without a budget, at least for now.
"We need a budget for logistics and to mobilize, but for now we don't have that yet so we are asking for the people's cooperation. We also need to craft our own ordinance because it would be hard to enforce President Duterte's executive order 26 because the fines are expensive. We need to create something that is ideal for Cagayan de Oro," she said.
She said the ordinance is still subject to changes after their visit to Davao City last week to benchmark its best practices when it comes to the ban implementation.
The launching on Monday meant that the information drive against smoking in public places will be intensified, but violators will face no sanction.
Gaane said it's only within the City Hall premises where sanctions are imposed. City hall employees caught smoking will face an administrative penalty.
"Kinahanglan nato ang massive na information drive (We need to have massive information drive), kadtong 45 days na observe namo nga medyo naay kakulangon (we observed during the 45 days info drive), nay gray areas ang atong eo 26 among ga iron out pa (the EO 26 still has gray areas that we are ironing out)," she said.
"Lisod kaayo mag implement ug usa ka butang nga naa pa btaw gray areas, basin unya mapareha sa tambay nga diritso naimplement (It will be hard to implement something that still has gray areas we cannot let this one be like that tambay campaign that was implemented rashly)," she added.
Police Superintendent Mardy Hortillosa, spokesperson of the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo) said the police will not arrest violators but will only reprimand them.
"Wala pay apprehension sa mga civilian kay kailangan man mag-file ug kaso (There are still no apprehension for civilians because then we need to file a case). Ug gusto sa task force nga like sa Davao nga naay notice of violation lang ang ihatag, pero wala pa ta ana mao info drive ug pamadlong lang ta karon (If the task force wants to replicate Davao where notices of violation are given, we can do that but right now we can only reprimand and intensify our info drive)," Hortillosa said.