NCRPO: Public vapers can’t refuse police ‘invitation’

MANILA, Philippines — It’s an “invitation” you can’t refuse.

Those who vape in public cannot refuse to be taken in by the police, according to the police commander for Metro Manila.

If a public vaper refuses to be apprehended, he or she will be dragged to the police station. “Kakaladkarin namin sila” for resisting an invitation, Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office, told “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News yesterday.

Sinas said that so far, no one has refused an “invitation” to go to a police station for recording in the blotter. He assured the public that this will not constitute a police record that might derail applications for a police clearance and similar government documents.

Asked for the legal basis for such police “invitations” and the confiscation of electronic cigarettes and vaping devices, Sinas said the verbal order from President Duterte to the Philippine National Police (PNP) was enough to apprehend persons vaping in public places.

A written executive order, law or local ordinance is needed, he explained, only if charges are to be filed against the person apprehended.

Those vaping in public will merely be held briefly and the case recorded in the police blotter before being released, Sinas said. He stressed that the PNP is authorized to hold such persons for up to six hours without filing any charges.

Asked if vapers could refuse to go with the police, he said, “No.”

Duterte had ordered the PNP to implement the ban on vaping in public places. He also ordered a ban on the importation of e-cigarettes and vapes.

The vaping industry and legal circles have questioned the basis for the ban. The Department of Justice has pointed to Executive Order No. 26, which Duterte signed in May 2017, providing for smoke-free environments in public and enclosed spaces nationwide. The EO is based on Republic Act 8749 or the Clean Air Act of 1999 and RA 9211, passed in 2003, regulating tobacco products.

Vaping industry players argue that their products do not contain tobacco and therefore need to be covered by new laws or ordinances.

Sinas said the word of the President and commander-in-chief is enough for the PNP to start enforcing his order.

He said PNP officer-in-charge Lt. Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa made his own interpretation of Duterte’s verbal order and issued a written directive to the PNP. The directive included having police confiscate vapes and e-cigarettes from those apprehended in public. Police were also directed to advise owners of vape shops to stop selling their products or even shut down.

What if the enforcement of the President’s order is challenged in court? Echoing Gamboa, Sinas told The Chiefs: “So sue us.”

Ban vape sale to minors

One in every five users of vapes and e-cigarettes in the country belongs to the youth sector, or those aged 10 to 19 years old.

Groups advocating for the protection of children expressed alarm at this latest data from the Department of Health (DOH) and yesterday called for strict regulations on electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) products.

The Tobacco Control Advocacy Group (TCAG), Child Rights Network (CRN) and Health Justice Philippines (HJP) all called for legislative measures that would ban sale and use of vapes among minors, citing the danger to health of the supposed alternative to combustible cigarettes.

Riz Gonzalez, TCAG chair and member of the Philippine Pediatric Society, alleged that the vaping industry is targeting the youth as its market.

In a forum in Quezon City, she said she learned from her patients that vapes and e-cigarettes are now being sold on “installment basis for group users” and at discounted prices for online purchases, which makes the merchandise affordable to the youth.

She contested studies in the UK showing that ENDS are less dangerous to health than cigarettes, and stressed the findings of the US Food and Drug Administration indicating that vapes caused deaths among youths are more credible.

Gonzalez argued that the Public Health England study in 2015 showing that e-cigarettes are 95 percent less harmful than cigarettes is already “outdated” as “there have since been many developments.”

The pediatrician also questioned studies that insisted nicotine was not the cause of diseases acquired by vape users in the US, saying nicotine is the third most dangerous substance that could affect the brain.

Gonzalez, however, admitted that there is no study conducted yet in the country on harmful effects of vapes on children, saying it is actually “unethical and unacceptable” in their field to conduct such a clinical study.

Karl Marx Carumba of HJP agreed with Gonzalez and stressed that studies favoring ENDS were “funded by (the) tobacco industry.”

Rom Dongeto, CRN convenor and executive director of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development, also slammed the studies promoting vapes.

Muntinlupa Rep. Ruffy Biazon, for his part, vowed to pursue his proposed measure to strictly regulate vapes and e-cigarettes.

The House committee on trade and industry is set to tackle, at a hearing on Dec. 2, several proposed measures seeking regulation of ENDS products, which have been pending since the previous 17th Congress.

Biazon earlier filed House Bill No. 40, which seeks to regulate use, sale and distribution of ENDS products.

The proposed measure specifically seeks to ban the sale and use of ENDS products to minors in the country, with mandatory signages in merchants for this purpose.

The bill also mandates the Food and Drug Administration to regulate e-liquids and e-juices used in the products.

Vape tax to rise

At the weekly Kapihan sa Manila Bay, Rep. Joey Salceda cited that the government is getting about P130 million at present on taxes from vapes.

“Now, we will raise it from 10 percent to 25 percent,” Salceda said.

Salceda said that previously, vapes had been dubbed as the health-friendly alternative to smoking.

“But it turned out now that the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is right. And as a precautionary principle, the FDA wants to ban vapes’ use but the Supreme Court issued a TRO (temporary restraining order) against (the ban),” the lawmaker added.

Salceda said the House approved raising the price of vapes per milliliter from P25 to P45.