page_title: Tobacco packaging warning messages
section_title: Philippines
hierarchical_section_title: Tobacco packaging warning messages / Philippines
caption_attribution_description: English: Warning messages on Philippine tobacco packaging.
context_page_description: Tobacco package warning messages are warning messages that appear on the packaging of cigarettes and other tobacco products concerning their health effects. They have been implemented in an effort to enhance the public's awareness of the harmful effects of smoking. In general, warnings used in different countries try to emphasize the same messages. Warnings for some countries are listed below. Such warnings have been required in tobacco advertising for many years, with the earliest mandatory warning labels implemented in Iceland in 1969. Implementing tobacco warning labels has been strongly opposed by the tobacco industry, most notably in Australia following the implementation of plain packaging laws.
  The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, adopted in 2003, requires such package warning messages to promote awareness against smoking.
  A 2009 review summarises that "There is clear evidence that tobacco package health warnings increase consumers' knowledge about the health consequences of tobacco use." The warning messages "contribute to changing consumers' attitudes towards tobacco use as well as changing consumers' behavior."
context_section_description: All cigarette packaging sold in Philippines are required to display a government warning label. The warnings include:
  Government Warning: Cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health.
  Government Warning: Cigarettes are addictive.
  Government Warning: Tobacco smoke can harm your children.
  Government Warning: Smoking kills.
  In July 2014, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III signed the Republic Act 10643, or "An Act to Effectively Instill Health Consciousness through Graphic Health Warnings on Tobacco Products", more known as the "Graphic Health Warning Act." This law requires tobacco product packaging to display pictures of the ill effects of smoking, occupying the bottom half of the display area in both front and the back side of the packaging. On 3 March 2016, Department of Health (DOH) secretary Janette Garin started the implementation of Republic Act 10643, requiring tobacco manufacturers to include graphic health warnings on newer cigarette packaging.
  With the Graphic Health Warning Act implemented, graphic health warnings are used on all newer cigarette packaging, and older packages using text-only warnings are required to be replaced by newer packaging incorporating graphic warnings. The 12 new warnings, showing photos of negative effects of smoking, like mouth cancer, impotence, and gangrene, are rotated every month, and on 3 November 2016, all cigarette packaging without graphic health warning messages are banned from sale. Labeling of cigarettes with "light" or "mild" is also forbidden by the Graphic Health Warning Act.
caption: Tobacco packaging warning messages on cigarette packs sold in the Philippines prior to March 2016
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