HE?S been waging this war for the past 17 years and from all indications, former senator and health secretary Dr. Juan Flavier isn?t about to declare a truce.

After all, as an authority on health, the good doctor knows he has the smoking gun against his perennial opponents, the tobacco companies, who have thus far parried all his thrusts with endless court cases.

The first skirmish was in 1993. While still the Health Secretary, Flavier issued an administrative order for all cigarette packs to carry warning labels on the health hazards of tobacco. When he was elected into the Senate in 1995, he spent five years trying to pass a law requiring tobacco companies to put text warnings on cigarette packs.

Aside from fighting restraining orders, the former senator had to work against lawmakers from tobacco-producing provinces and those friendly to the tobacco industry. All they had to do was absent themselves from committee hearings and Flavier?s bill would be shelved for lack of a quorum. He recounts how he had to strong-arm some of his colleagues to fill up committee hearings and attend sessions. Known for attending even the most boring committee meetings, Flavier threatened to boycott his colleagues? committees if they kept missing hearings for his tobacco regulation bill.

But getting politicians to attend hearings was one thing; getting them to pass the bill was another Herculean task for the diminutive doctor. Politicians from tobacco-growing provinces argued that the law would deprive tobacco farmers of their income and force them further into poverty.

?I told them: If that?s the case, then we should also pity kidnappers and murderers because we?ve outlawed their professions,? he recalls in an interview at his Quezon City residence. He told them that tobacco farmers could just as easily farm some other crop that didn?t pose risks to people?s lives.

Flavier was finally able to muster enough support from the tobacco bloc to get the Tobacco Regulation Act passed in 2003. Cigarette packs sold in the Philippines now have warning labels on the harmful effects of smoking. Ironically, cigarette companies are now using that law to keep the Health department from implementing an administrative order that requires graphic health information on cigarette packs too.

The DoH ordered tobacco companies in May this year to put graphic health information on cigarette packs and to remove misleading descriptions to conform to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which the Philippine Senate ratified in 2005.

But cigarette companies have filed for restraining orders against the DOH, saying that requiring graphic health information will force them to break the law.

Cigarette companies say that a clause in the Tobacco Regulation Act stating that ?No other printed warnings, except the health warning and the message required in this Section [Section 13 of RA 9211], paragraph F, shall be placed on cigarette packages? prohibits them from putting full-color pictures of the effects of smoking on their products.

It was a move that got Flavier, who has since retired from politics and has been doing pro bono work with foundations, angry enough to fight them on their favorite turf: the courts. ?It?s just a ploy,? he says of the suits filed by the cigarette companies.

?They?ll ask for a TRO for anything,? he says. He recounts how an entrepreneur once asked his help in developing a smoking cessation aid made of pandan leaves. The poor guy was sued before he could even come out with a prototype, he adds.

Flavier is one of some 100 people who signed a petition asking a Makati court to affirm the validity of the DoH administrative order, which would have taken effect in September. ?It?s very simple. We?re just asking the court to let the DoH do its job,? he says.

But Flavier?s war against the tobacco industry isn?t just about hitting at cigarette companies. He is also working with foundations advocating health promotion and the raising of sin taxes to discourage people from smoking.

He is working as well towards getting the government-run PhilHealth to cover smoking cessation programs for nicotine addicts. He says that people hooked on smoking really need help and that cigarette substitutes like nicotine patches and gum are too expensive for the average Filipino, making it even harder for them to quit the habit. By helping addicts quit smoking and avoid smoking-related diseases that often require expensive treatment, ?we?ll be ahead of the game,? says Flavier.

With more anti-smoking groups now than in 1993 and with more people becoming aware of the dangers of smoking, the former DoH secretary remains optimistic. ?We?ll win. It?s very simple,? says Flavier, whose long drawn-out war with tobacco companies easily recalls a David and Goliath fight. Hopefully, with the same results. ?