ASOG’s Tobacco Control and Governance Team attends World Conference on Tobacco Control 2025

Last 23 to 25 June 2025, the Tobacco Control and Governance team of the Ateneo Policy Center, represented by Program Manager Alen Santiago and Project Coordinator Sam Ackary, attended the World Conference on Tobacco Control 2025 held in Dublin, Ireland.

The World Conference on Tobacco Control, after coming out from a seven-year hiatus, is the foremost global gathering on tobacco control. The conference brings together academics, health professionals, policymakers, and NGOs from over 100 countries. It serves as a key platform for sharing successes, showcasing best practices, and reinforcing global collaboration against tobacco industry interference. WCTC is organized by International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) and supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The conference spanned over three days and facilitated a wide range of discussions, panels, and presentations centered on diverse topics in tobacco control, from forward-looking measures to fulfill the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, advancing current measures in tobacco cessation, combating industry interference in academic science, and many more.

Key representatives attended the conference, including World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Ireland Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin, and Michael Bloomberg of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Alen and Sam were among 20+ Philippine delegates at the conference, having presented two out of four papers that were accepted for presentation at the conference. The abstracts for both papers can be accessed in the official abstract book of the conference. The link for the abstract book can be viewed here.

Other delegates from the Philippines included representatives from the Department of Health—Health Promotion Bureau, Vital Strategies, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Southeast Asia Alliance for Tobacco Control, Baguio City Local Government Unit, Transcending Institutions Inc, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Imagine Law, Health Justice, Youth Against Vape, and Philippine Legislators' Committee on Population and Development. The local government unit of Baguio City was recognized as a Bloomberg Philanthropy Awardee for their outstanding efforts in monitoring tobacco use in the city. 

In addition, as a fellow alumni of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control (IGTC), Sam attended a WCTC side event organized by IGTC and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. The event convened young tobacco control professionals to meet and interact with established champions. Three speakers from different countries and backgrounds shared the story of their careers in tobacco control. The event concluded with a social segment for all participants to engage with one another.

The World Conference on Tobacco Control 2025 concluded with a declaration reaffirming a global commitment to ending the tobacco epidemic. Framed as a bold call to action, it highlights the ongoing public health crisis caused by tobacco use—responsible for over 7 million deaths annually—and its massive economic and social toll, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The declaration urges governments to fully implement the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), emphasizing five priority actions: raising tobacco taxes, rejecting tobacco industry interference, enforcing comprehensive advertising bans, addressing environmental harms of tobacco, and partnering with civil society to uphold the human right to health. It positions tobacco control as essential to global health, development, and sustainability.