the press statement was nothing more than a media push

Media reports have stated that President Benigno Aquino has quit smoking, but on further reading it appears that he only quit smoking for twelve hours during the flight back from the United States.

His Presidential spokesperson Mr. Edwin Lacierda in a press conference explained the Filipino chain smoking President was able to cope with his smoking addiction by taking his mind off cigarettes by reading books. On further questioning it became apparent that Mr. Lacierda was not able to name the books that the President read on the flight which made us think that he probably didn't read anything at all.

Is it possible that the President of a country like the Philippines can't make arrangements to smoke on an airplane? At Ukmedix News we reckon that Benigno Aquino smoked all the way from the Philippines to America and back again and that the press statement was nothing more than a media push to show that he is in charge of his nicotine addiction.

When people are chronically addicted to cigarettes like President Aquino, the idea of going on a nonsmoking airplane can make them breakout into sweats and start to panic. In fact President Aquino has come under a lot of flak from health groups in his country to quit smoking but claims that if he did he might become stressed out and make poor decisions for the nation.

The Philippine Medical Association also recently put out a circular to its members saying that it was important for them to set an example to their patients by quitting smoking. In fact the PMA even went as far as to make a resolution saying that smoking was prohibited for its members and that if they broke the rules they could be subjected to penalties. The PMA said that they would encourage individual patients to report doctors who continued to smoke.