Three Filipino children aged six to nine were caught smoking in the streets of Santa Mesa in Manila, Philippines.
In a video that circulated widely on social media, the three children were seen offering a cigarette to the man who captured the video. One of the children was wearing a school uniform, ABS-CBN News reported.
The children said their mother and older brother taught them how to smoke, and that they were able to buy cigarettes from a small store near their home. When questioned, however, the children’s mother denied teaching her children to smoke and claimed that she herself does not smoke.
The woman from the store mentioned by the children denied selling them cigarettes and claimed that she sells neither cigarettes nor alcohol to minors.
Nanet Tanyag, officer-in-charge of the Manila City Social and Welfare Development Office, said that the three children are now under the Department’s care, and and efforts will be made to ensure that they do not smoke again.
