Pinoy doctor wins int'l award for tobacco control

A Filipino became the first Asian to receive the Judy Wilkenfeld Award for International Tobacco Control Excellence, a recognition given to someone who works to reduce tobacco use through policy advocacy.

Neuro-ophthalmologist E. Ulysses Dorotheo received the award during the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ awards gala in Washington last May 18.

The award is bestowed to those who exemplify the traits of American Judy Wilkenfeld, who worked tirelessly to reduce tobacco’s toll for more than 20 years.

Dorotheo has been a tobacco control advocate for over 10 years. At present, he is the director for the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance’s (SEATCA) Southeast Asia Initiative on Tobacco Tax, a five-year project aimed primarily at raising tobacco taxes and prices in the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, and Vietnam.

"The Marlboro cowboy may have ridden out of the US, but we are continually taking on Philip Morris and other transnational tobacco companies in the Philippines and in Asia. We need to fight collectively to ensure that public health is prioritized over international trade," Dorotheo said in a statement.

SEATCA director Bungon Ritthiphakdee lauded Dorotheo’s achievement, saying the medical doctor has been a "true champion of tobacco control and [has] always put forth consensus building in his working style."

Also, Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance executive director Maricar Limpin said she is "proud" that the first Asian to be given the Judy Wilkenfeld Award is a Filipino.

"It is a very significant contribution to the pride of Filipinos working in the global community for public health," Limpin said.

Dorotheo has been crucial to efforts to push for higher tobacco taxes and in simplifying the current tax structure in the country, according to non-governmental organization HealthJustice.

"Such efforts will hopefully relieve the government of health costs and curb tobacco use, especially among the youth whom we have to protect from a life-shortening addiction," it said.

The number of Filipinos dying from tobacco-related diseases has ballooned up to 87,600 annually, the group said.

In the Philippines, the use of tobacco seems to be incontrollable as the country has among the lowest cigarette prices in the world, HealthJustice said.

Also last year, a Marikina City court ruled in favor of the Fortune Tobacco Corp. disallowing the Department of Health from implementing an order that requires tobacco firms to place graphic warnings on their product packages.

The court holds that the interest of justice will be better served "if the status quo is maintained," Judge Felix Reyes of the Marikina Regional Trial Court Branch 271 said in a ruling dated July 1, 2010.