DIVISION MEMORANDUM No. 138 s. 2018 PRESS RELEASE ON THE “EskweLABAN Sa Sigarilyo” NATIONWIDE

Republic of the Philippines
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Region VIII

DIVISION OF CATBALOGAN CITY

April 23, 2018

DIVISION MEMORANDUM

No. 138 s. 2018

PRESS RELEASE ON THE “EskweLABAN Sa Sigarilyo” NATIONWIDE

TO:    Public School District Supervisors

Public & Private Elementary/Secondary School Heads, Teachers and

All others Concerned

1.    Attached is a press release dated April 5, 2018 from Hon. Leonor Magtolis

Briones, Secretary, Department of Education, to set roll-out on “EskweLA Ban sa Sigarilyo” nationwide.

2. Details of the program are stipulated in the same press release.

3. For information and compliance.

CRISTITO A. ECO, CESO VI Schools Division Superintendent

For the Schools Division Superintendent:

FRANCIS ANGELO   S. GELERA

Assistant Schools Division Superintendent

Republic of the Philippines

department of Education

     REGIONAL OFFICE NO. VIII (EASTERN VISAYAS)

Government Center, Candahug, Palo, Leyte

MEMORANDUM

TO:         Schools Division Superintendents

All Others Concerned                                                                 

FROM:         RAM1R B. UYT1CO, Ed.D., CESO IV

OIC-Regional Director

SUBJECT:       PRESS RELEASE ON THE “EskweLA BAN Sa Sigarilyo’

NATIONWIDE

DATE:          April 14( 2018

1.         Attached is a press release dated April 5, 2018 from Hon. Leonor Magtolis Briones,

Secretary, Department of Education, to set roll-out on “EskweLA Ban sa Sigarilyo” nationwide.

2.         Details of the program are stipulated in the attached press release.

3.         Immediate dissemination of this Memorandum is desired.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

PRESSRELEASE                                                                                                             

DepEd set to roll out EskweLA BAN sa Sigarilyo nationwide

PASIG CITY, April 5, 2018 — Beginning next school year,- all schools /nationwide-—— are expected to be part of EskweLA BAN sa Sigarilyo, an initiative that aims to

strengthen the implementation of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) tobacco control policy.

As the current school year draws to a close, DepEd is also culminating its
EskweLA BAN sa Sigarilyo Project, a three-year project in partnership with the Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund. Implemented in select schools in the cities of Pasig and Makati, and the provinces of Batangas, Bulacan, Bataan, and
Pampanga, the project developed and pilot-tested implementation mechanisms aimed to build the capacity of DepEd personnel in effectively carrying out the Department’s tobacco control policy.

“The EskweLA BAN sa Sigarilyo Project ends in its pilot-testing phase, and its
components will be adapted by DepEd for roll-out nationwide,” Undersecretary for
Legal Affairs Alberto Muyot, who has also served as the director of the project,
shared.

Muyot is pretaining to the monitoring and reporting tools, training manuals, and school-based campaign materials which were developed by the project to support schools in their implementation of the comprehensive tobacco control policy.

A ceremonial turnover of these materials was held on March 23, 2018 at DepEd Central Office, Pasig City.

The project brand EskweLA BAN sa Sigarilyo is a play on the Filipino words eskwela, laban, and eskwela ban to communicate that schools {eskwela), through the school’s bans (eskwela ban), are on a collective fight (laban) against tobacco (sigarilyo). Intended to carry two meanings – the school’s bans on cigarettes or the school’s fight against tobacco – EskweLA BAN sa Sigarilyo aims to increase public awareness of the bans stipulated in DepEd Order No. 48, s. 2016 (DO 48, s. 2016) or the Policy and Guidelines on Comprehensive Tobacco Control, and to build the capacity of schools, through their respective Child Protection Committees, to effectively take a stand against tobacco by implementing the strategies
enumerated in the Order.

DO 48, s. 2016 mandates the Child Protection Committee, which has already been
set up in all schools since 2012 and chaired by the Principal, to monitor
compliance with and report violations of various tobacco control policies such as

(1) bans on smoking in schools; (2) bans on the sale and advertisement of tobacco products within the 100-meter perimeter of schools, and (3) bans on receiving sponsorships from the tobacco industry and other unnecessary interactions with the tobacco industry.

The same DO further identified strategies for the effective implementation of the policy including: (1) information, education, and communication, (2) cessation interventions, (3) collaborations, partnerships and linkages, (4) capacity building, and (5) reporting and monitoring.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY