Three vape users caught, released without charge

By: Jennifer P. Rendon 

Three men were arrested after they were caught using e-cigarettes, or commonly known as vape, at a public area in Mandurriao, Iloilo City.

Patrolling policemen caught the three youngsters, all 19 years old, vaping at the roadside along Barangay Airport around 1:30 a.m. of Nov. 23, 2019

They are residents of Mandurriao, Molo, and La Paz districts.

The team led by Police Executive Master Sergeant Isidro Pacinio booked the incident and confiscated the trio’s vapes.

But they were not detained nor charged.

Police Major Marlon Valencia, Mandurriao police chief, said they will refer the trio’s case to the Iloilo City Anti-Smoking Task Force (ICAST).

Valencia said succeeding violators might be given citation ticket for violating the city’s anti-smoking ordinance.

Earlier, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said it will enforce the ban on vapes or e-cigarettes despite the absence of an executive order from President Rodrigo Duterte that clearly defines the grounds for arresting offenders.

The police is banking on Executive Order No. 26 as the basis of the vaping ban.

Duterte issued EO No. 26 entitled “Providing for the Establishment of Smoke-Free Environments in Public and Enclosed Places” on May 16, 2017.

The executive order invoked the Clean Air Act of 1999 and the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003 to impose a nationwide ban on smoking in all public places in the Philippines.

It was a replication of an ordinance passed in 2002 in Davao City where Duterte was a former mayor.

But it was gathered that nowhere in the nine prohibited acts under EO 26 pertained to the ban on the importation and use of vapes.