CLARK FREEPORT – The Bataan provincial field office of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) was recently acknowledged as the recipient of the Department of Health’s (DOH) Red Orchid Award for 2018.
The Red Orchid Awards is a DOH incentive program which calls for the absolute smoking ban among government offices and encourages local government units (LGUs) to do the same in their health facilities and other public places. The award is given to a government office with exemplary work and strength of comprehensive efforts on the anti-smoking campaign.
The DOLE Bataan field office garnered a percentage score of 104.76 percent that won it the Red Orchid Award.
The Red Orchid Award with a percentage point of 100 is the award given to any office/agency with the highest citation in the anti-smoking campaign.
It is followed by the Pink Orchid with 81-90 percent and the White Orchid with 71-80 percent.
Participants were judged based on the acronym devised by the DOH as MPOWER which denotes the six proven tobacco control policies: Monitor tobacco control policies; Protect people from tobacco smoke; Off er help to quit tobacco use; Warn against the dangers of tobacco; Enforce the ban on tobacco advertising; and Raise taxes on tobacco.
Representatives of the DOH conducted a validation and winners were judged based on the strength of their comprehensive efforts to implement the 100 percent smoke-free environment in the workplace.
The DOLE Bataan provincial head Leilani Reynoso was elated with the recognition as their collective effort at the field office for the implementation of the DOH program was promptly recognized.
“A lot of studies have shown that smoking is one of the preventable causes of death and the number of smokers and tobacco consumption is continuously increasing, thus the department is genuinely committed in supporting the program of the DOH in its goal of having an environment free of smoke,” Reynoso said.
DOH revealed that from the inception of the Red Orchid Award in 2009 to 2017, it has declared 68 Hall of Fame Awards to 14 cities and 54 municipalities and 89 awardees.
