MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte warned the judiciary on Wednesday not to interfere with his order to ban e-cigarettes / vaping in the country.
“Judges, I warn you, do not issue restraining orders to the Customs, to the Coast Guard,” Duterte said in a speech during the 80th anniversary of the Department of National Defense at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
“I will not obey your order because of the peculiar situation this country finds,” he added.
The President ordered on Tuesday night the ban on the use and importation of e-cigarettes.
READ: Duterte bans use, importation of e-cigarettes
He ordered the police to arrest those who would violate his order.
He said there was no executive order yet on the ban but ordered the police to arrest violators.
“I immediately ordered last night to confiscate and arrest people vaping in public places,” he said.
“Meaning to say, the safest way to do it is in your house. But if you are not that stupid, when you do that, you contaminate all including your children in the family,” he added.
Duterte said there is a law “which says that you cannot distribute toxic materials in public places.”
“And that is why in public places I told them to arrest,” he said.
He cited the dangers of vaping, which he said has been abused by the youth.
“It’s being used by the youth of this country with gusto not realizing the dangers. And we can understand their youthful negligence,” he said.
The Department of Health (DOH) has earlier recorded the first recorded e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury (Evali) from a 16-year-old girl in Central Visayas.
GSG