Let’s face it. The world hates smokers. In Hong Kong, for example, you can get fined HK$5,000 (29,000 motherfucking Philippine pesos) for smoking indoors and the people who run their airport crams smokers into a poorly-ventilated cubicle that will remind you how much of a deviant you are for still thinking cigarettes are cool (or for being an addict, which is also pretty deviant.)
Small wonder, then, that tobacco companies want to keep as many smokers still smoking. Which is probably why tobacco firm Telengtan Brothers and Sons Inc (La Suerte Cigar and Cigarette Factory) tried to stop the Department of Health from implementing an order to put pictures of smoking-related diseases on cigarette packs.
Telengtan, manufacturer of Astro, Memphis, and Canon cigarettes, says the order would cause “grave and irreparable damage” to the company because of the heavy fines that would be imposed for violating the order.
But a Paranaque judge would have none of it, saying La Suerte is jumping at ghosts since the DOH order is not supposed to take effect until September this year:
The Parañaque RTC denied the Telengtan injunction since it will preempt a decision on the validity of the AO, which is the principal issue in the case. The court also said that because the penalties are not even operative yet, Telengtan’s “rouse of a possible violation of the law becomes a little bit imaginary in the meantime, and would not stand to prejudice petitioner.”
It seems then that La Suerte pretty much intends to tell the DOH to fuck off but thinks the price of doing so is a bit too steep. So, I don’t know, guys, maybe you should try not breaking the law at all?
But it shouldn’t really worry about the public being turned off by the graphic health warnings they’re supposed to stick on their packs. I mean, when was the last time you saw a pack of Astro, Memphis, or Canon anyway?
For the longest time, I thought Lourd De Veyra just made up Astro cigarettes for the song of the same name.
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