56 minutes with Health Justice Philippines

Admittedly, I almost forgot last night's bloggers' roundtable. I was busy buying my electronic cigarette in Greenhills that I forgot that I have a meeting with guys serious on helping suckers like me get rid of this dangerous habit of smoking cigarettes. 


Forgetfulness seems another cigarette smoker sucker's disease. Aside from weakening your body, cigarette smoke deadens your brain. Time to really get rid of these toxic fumes preventing my brain nerves from functioning normally.


Anyway, I was glad I attended the roundtable. For fifty six minutes, these guys prevented me from smoking. And mind you, they did not do anything spectacular. None of them danced. None of them tried to coerce me from dropping the habit pronto. None even went to say that I smell awful. 


We just talked. And for 56 minutes I felt bliss.


Attorney Theodore Te was there. I'm glad that he did not recognize me as the guy behind the Rosebud expose or the guy who signed the last impeachment against Arroyo. He was there basically as a former smoker who now gives his precious time fighting the demons dressed in business suits (and I mean the tobacco company men).


These demons are trying to circumvent Administrative order 2010-0013 of the Department of Health. They are doing so in the name of suckerism. Yes, suckerism. They want to sucker everybody up by preventing us from looking at photos and graphic pictures of their victims. And these victims are definitely not laughing. They are all in the throes of death.


I admit--many times I wanted to go out of the room and smoke. Yet the discussions were quite interesting and the food heavenly, that I sat there, consuming all those delicious beef, tea, seafood, mushrooms and everything my chopsticks could get,  that 56 minutes went by without me noticing that I did not even get one stick and light. 


Smokers have this habit of lighting a cigarette especially after eating a meal at Hap Chan. This is the first time that a smoker did not. 


This is also the first time that I discussed social matters with people who don't smoke. Usually, I go to serious meetings with my revolutionary colleagues and each and every time I do so, I really think that someone or maybe the government knew there was such a meeting. The place was smoking. 


It's good to light a cigarette while doing intellectual masturbation. It makes your brain work doubly hard. IMagine all those toxic fumes in your brain. You'll definitely get a new and bright idea since you're punishing your brain to think double or triple or faster while smoking and suffocating your brain with smoke. 


Anyway, hearing other people's experience when they were smokers gives me the chance to really consider dropping the habit altogether. 


Opps....pardon me, but I did not realize that I was writing this piece while smoking a Black bat. Wow. And you know why? My electronic cigarette failed me. 

Marlboro man's horse died due to second hand smoke. And you too sucker.

I am a voracious smoker and I want to quit.


Even before going to the Bloggers' roundtable discussion sponsored by the Health Justice Philippines last night, I really intended to quit smoking. Since a week ago, I had this vicious cough and it's irritating. And I am pretty sure that it's related to smoking. 


I've been smoking since 1992. Yep, after graduation from the university, I caught the smoking habit while typing away 47 stories per day inside a DZBB newsroom. My brain was wired with it--fast typing equals one stick. 


I started with Philip and ended with Winston. I tried Fortune and different stuff. I'm experimental, but Winston seems okey with me. I've been a Winston guy since I saw somebody smoking with it.


And I don't care if its lights or red, for as long as I can light it, sure. 


Now, I've been smoking for eighteen years and I dein look at x-rays of my precious lungs. They're probably as black as soot. 


I tried several times to quit, only to relapse and get back into the habit. Most of my friends told me to just give it up immediately and don't rely on any medicine or drugs. I tried, and again failed. Such a weakling when it comes to smoking. 


My desire to quit is basically my health. I am weaker than before. I can't run as fast as I was eighteen years ago. The reason I don't go to rallies anymore is simple---I am sure to be arrested because I can't really run as fast as others. 


Of course, this is just a minor or shall we say, very mild counter-effects of smoking. Most die due to emphysema, others breast cancer. The cancer of the throat is also one of the leading causes of death due to smoking. And the list goes on and on.


My father died due to smoking. I'm pretty sure I'm next. 


You don't actually die due to smoking---you die because of the hazardous chemicals contained in what you smoke. These chemicals are those used in killing mice. The more flavorful your smoke is, the more hazardous stuff it contains.


I am a smoker and I hate cigarette companies for not telling me that they're selling toxic stuff.  This is like saying that hey you buy me, I am addictive and I'll kill you in a few years but I'll not tell you that. 


Cigarette-smoking related deaths run in the thousands. Photos of victims are being held back by these cigarette companies from public knowledge for suckers like me not to militate against them and continue buying these addictive stuff. 


I admit--I'm a sucker. But, hey, don't let others be like me. Lucio Tan and the rest of the Philip Morris guys should very roast themselves in hell, but, be responsible enough to inform others, especially non-suckers who are thinking of smoking, that smoking is definitely not fun nor cool.


Cigarette smoking heats the body up. When your lungs can't take the heat, it produces mucos. That mucos impedes the normal flow of precious oxygen into your lungs, irritating it and therefore, you cough. And that cough is pretty much humiliating especially if you're infront of your girlfriend. Imagine yourself coughing while saying those immortal I love yous infront of your loved one, and spitting out those toxic mucos. Yuck.


The Department of Health has issued Administrative Order no. 2010-0013 ordering tobacco companies in the Philippines to include graphic health information in their packages. This is to show the effects of consuming these lethal health hazards. The intention is laudable. The intention is serious and just tries to tell these tobacco companies to show the real score. 


And you know what? These tobacco companies are not following government orders. Reason? No law was passed telling them to include graphic health information in their cigarette packs. WTF? You have an administrative order coming from a legitimate government agency, and a constitutional body at that, and you say that no law exists ordering you to do the right thing?


I am a smoker and I hate tobacco companies who lie. 


If this cough continues and I go to my doctor later on and if my doctor tells me definitively that my cough is a direct consequence of my tobacco smoking and Winston did not tell me that smoking his cigarette causes me these humiliating cough, then, I'll sue his ass off! Or probably, I'll burn their factories and ask people to militate against them and launch a campaign against Philip, Winston, Fortune, and Marlboro man. (Marlboro man died of cancer. So much for riding a horse while smoking. Latest news: the horse which Marlboro man rode to infamy, also died due to second hand smoke).


Anyway, last night, I started investing on my health. I bought myself an electronic cigarette. It cost me 850. Yep, that's my investment. I am dead serious. I want to rid myself of this habit. Cigarette smoking kills. I know it. The tobacco company men know it. Everyone knows it. Yet, every one tries to ignore it. 


It is now time for people to admit that smoking is serious stuff and it kills.