PNP-DOH UNITE TO COMBAT SURGING YOUTH VAPING

MANILA — Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Benjamin Acorda, Jr. has ordered the service’s operation directorate to craft guidelines to crack down on the illegal sale of vape products to minors.

Acorda issued the order after Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Teodoro Herbosa sought the assistance of the PNP to ensure that minors would have no access to e-cigarettes amid the increase in the use of e-cigarettes and vapes among Filipino youths.

In a press briefing at Camp Crame on Wednesday afternoon, March 6, Acorda said he had already tasked the head of the Directorate for Operations (DO), Major General Ronald Lee, to formulate operational guidelines that would emphasize protecting the minors, including the arrest of sellers.

“The provision of the law is clear; the protection of minors is the intention of the law. What we want to come out [with], for uniformity of the implementation, will be the output of our DO, but the real intention is the spirit of the law,” Acorda said.

“Also, we will be having our community awareness program, and through the media. We will make sure that this opportunity that we have now to inform the public of the bad effects of vaping,” he added.

The DOH Secretary said he asked Acorda to ensure that the specific provision of the Republic Act (RA) 11900, relating to the prohibition of selling vapes to people below 18 years old is strictly implemented.

RA 11900, which was enacted into law in 2022, was aimed at regulating the importation, sale, packaging, distribution, use, and communication of vaporized nicotine and non-nicotine products and novel tobacco products.

This includes electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products.

While the law is specific in connection with the prohibition of the sale to minors, Herbosa said he witnessed how teenagers, some of them wearing school uniforms, are using vapes even inside the malls.

“They [minors] are getting sick because they can buy vapes, and they have been doing this for months. So, this is what I asked the PNP, to help implement what is written in the law because the DOH has no enforcement power,” Herbosa said.

According to the 2019 Global Youth Tobacco Survey, about 11 percent of students nationwide use tobacco, 10 percent smoke cigarettes, and 14 percent use e-cigarettes.

In 2021, data from the Philippine Pediatric Society showed that 11 percent of students ages 10 to 15 years old had already tried vapes.

Online accessibility (32 percent), varied flavors (22 percent), and the belief that e-cigarettes are safer than tobacco (17 percent) are the top three reasons for the use of vapes among the age group.