One by one, Negros Oriental’s cities and towns are passing laws banning smoking in public places.
All these anti-smoking initiatives in the Province started in the town of Amlan, after two of their councilors had personal encounters with the evils of smoking. One councilor, Edmund Tubac, who had been smoking for 40 years, had a quadruple heart bypass. The other, Melvyn Reynado, who had been smoking for about the same number of years, was spared a heart disease–but it was his wife who required an angioplasty from years of inhaling second-hand smoke.
Their misfortune proved to work for the good of many other people in Negros Oriental, who now have to abide by these laws throughout most of Negros Oriental.
As narrated by Amlan town councilors Edmund Tubac and Melvyn Reynado, they didn’t know much about the dangers of smoking until they encountered the near-fatal symptoms of a heart disease. Their experience could be a very persuasive testimony to the thousands of smokers in Negros Oriental.
For now, there appears to be some opposition to this law from smokers who insist on their “right” to smoke. Sure, everyone has a right to smoke. But he has no right to make unwilling people inhale his second-hand smoke. These unwilling smokers are the people that these laws are protecting.
Smokers don’t have to go through the harrowing experience of the two Amlan councilors before they kick the habit, President Noy Aquino included. Wise people learn from the mistakes of others.