YOLO — you only live once. So why smoke and cut your life short? When it comes to smoking, you start young, you die young. There’s nothing cool about it.

Studies show that a staggering 90% of adult smokers started smoking as teens or younger. No wonder the tobacco companies’ sneaky advertisements and marketing tactics are now aimed at us, the youth. They know that once we start, we will be their steady customers for the rest of our lives.

According to the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, a school-based survey for Filipinos aged 13-15, 13.7% of students are already smoking any form of tobacco and 8.9% currently smoke cigarettes. Crazy.

This is why we’d like to call on our role models to step up for us Filipino high school and college students whom the tobacco companies are trying get hooked on their deadly product. We believe the UAAP athletes are in the best position to influence millions of us teens across the Philippines by making a stand against smoking.

Every Maroon, Bulldog, Warrior, Eagle, Archer, Tiger, Tamaraw, and Falcon are the epitome of discipline, fitness, hard work, and determination. They are excellent role models who can show that making the most out of our teenage lives, being cool, popular and adventurous does not involve lighting up a cigarette.

This is a special shout-out to all UAAP varsity teams — Please join the “Time’s Up, Tobacco!” campaign by making a video telling Filipino students that we are the generation who will stop and end the tobacco epidemic.

National movers and shakers like Sen. Pia Cayetano, Prof. Winnie Monsod, Tado Jimenez (+), Patty Laurel, Fr. Robert Reyes, and Charie Villa have already participated in this project. UAAP athletes, will you please join our campaign?

UAAP, while you bring pride to our schools, we believe that you can also make greater impact on the Filipino youth and lead them towards a healthy and tobacco-free lifestyle.

So who will be the first team to stand up against smoking? Will it be your team? Upload your videos on Youtube and share the link with us on Twitter @TimesUpTobacco or Facebook with the hashtags #TimesUpTobacco and #YOLOsmokefree. You can also visit our website for more information. Thank you!

-- Arvin Maceda, 21, University of the Philippines-Manila student and HealthJustice Intern, Batch 2014