Senator Pia Cayetano. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to ban vaping in public might have been prompted by a court’s decision against the government’s move to regulate it.
Senator Pia Cayetano offered this explanation after the President banned on Tuesday the use and importation of e-cigarettes.
READ: Duterte bans use, importation of e-cigarettes
Despite the President’s order, the senator vowed to continue pushing for higher taxes on sin products, including e-cigarettes.
“The way I look at it is my work continues,” Cayetano, who heads the Senate committee on ways and means, said in a phone patch interview on Thursday.
“Because our President has really just expressed — from my understanding — his disappointment and exasperation with the e-cig industry. And that’s why he made that statement na i-ban na ‘yan,” she said.
Cayetano said the Department of Health (DOH) has issued an Administrative Order (AO) regulating e-cigarettes, but some industry players questioned it before the court.
A temporary restraining order against the AO was later issued by the Manila Regional Trial Court and the Pasig Regional Trial Court.
READ: Injunction issued vs DOH order regulating use, sale of e-cigarettes
“So ngayon (now), we have products that are clearly harmful to the public…” she said, “But there is no doubt, I don’t know anyone in the business who will say safe na safe ito. There are health hazards there. And they are unregulated.”
“Eh ‘di nabwisit si Presidente, so ang basa ko sa kanya, “Ah ganun ha? Ayaw niyo magpa-regulate, i-ban ko na lang kayo,” she added.
(My reading is that the President got upset: ‘Ok, you don’t to be regulated? Then I’ll just ban you.’)
Cayetano said she shared Duterte’s sentiments.
“Ayaw niyo magpa-regulate? Eh ‘di lumabas na kayo sa bansang ito (You don’t want to be regulated? Then just get out of this country),” she said.
In defending the President’s move, the senator pointed out the Chief Executive’s inherent power to protect the public from health risks .
Aside from pursuing a higher tax on sin products, Cayetano said she would file a bill that would regulate e-cigarettes.
After all, she said, taxation is just a “means, a tool to help make these products that are harmful less accessible to the vulnerable, especially the youth.”