N
F
E
R
NEWS
H
PHILIPPINES PRESIDENT
ORDERS POLICE TO
ARREST VAPERS
Duterte evoked the rhetoric of his deadly war on drugs
ahead of clampdown
Words: Gordon Stribling
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered authorities to
arrest vapers ahead of an executive order that would outlaw the
use and importation of the devices.
The news came days after the country saw its fi rst case of
e-cigarette-associated lung injury which lead to a sixteen-year-old
being hospitalised.
Duterte said: “Last night I ordered the local law enforcement agencies
and the military to arrest anybody vaping or even smoking in public.
“The safest way to do it [vape] is in your house but when you do that,
you contaminate all in the family, including your children.”
The President said that an executive order ‘will come’ and he will
take full responsibility for the actions of the armed forces in the
meantime.
He referred to his previous statements relating to the war on drugs,
which has seen 25,000 people killed since 2016, many by masked
gunmen in the street.
He said: “You are protected because I’m ordering you a legal order
preventing injury to the Filipino children.
“That is what I meant when I say do not destroy my country because
I will kill you.”
There are around a million vapers in the Philippines, according to the
Department of Health.
30 VM26
While Duterte is determined to punish people caught vaping in public,
a Philippine National Police (PNP) top offi cial said that there is no
legal basis for fi ling the cases.
However, asked why the police would go ahead and arrest vapers,
Lieutenant General Archie Gamboa said: “Just to implement the
directive of the President. Under the police powers of the state you
can do that.”
“Do not destroy my country
because I will kill you”
Gamboa said that he had ordered police to arrest, but not detain,
vapers as there was no clear course to do so.
Instead, their names will be listed in on a charge sheet before they
are released.
Of the charge sheet process, Gamboa said:
“It doesn’t even have a probative value. You cannot even use it in court,
and it cannot prejudice the person later on.”