National Security Adviser Eduardo Año is well within his scope of authority to declare that any move toward secession of any part of Philippine territory would be met with resolute force
How serious is the problem of illicit trade in e-cigarettes or vapes in the country?
Serious enough, it would seem, that it merited an investigation by the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives.
The recent probe revealed the local vape industry is now worth P13 billion, which should be paying an excise tax of P5.56 billion a year but paid only P631 million in 2022.
The illicit trade in vapes is on the rise as untaxed and unregulated e-cigarette products enter the country.
Most of the illicit vapes are disposables or single-use vapes, which are fast becoming health and environmental hazards, prompting some European governments such as the United Kingdom to impose a ban on it.
The UK leadership wants to ban disposable vapes to stop their children from getting addicted to e-cigarettes.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is risking his political career with this draconian measure amid his plunging popularity among Britons and even within his Conservative Party.
A 2023 report from Action on Smoking and Health found that the proportion of children experimenting with vaping had grown by 50 percent year-on-year.
The proportion of youths from 11 to 17 years-old who use vape has increased almost nine times in the last two years with disposables as a “key driver” for the rise.
The UK is not the first country to introduce the idea of banning disposable vapes. Australia began banning the import of disposable e-cigarettes in early January 2024, citing concerns over teens’ health.
In December last year, France’s National Assembly unanimously approved a bill to ban disposables to protect young people and reduce environmental impacts.
Scotland and Ireland are also both moving in the same direction while Belgium is seen to follow the French example. Germany and New Zealand are close to enforcing their own respective ban.
Disposable vapes are usually made of inferior and questionable materials. They contain multiple types of hazardous waste from residual nicotine, heavy metals from the vaporizer’s electrical circuitry, lithium batteries, residual e-liquid, and plastic waste from a non-decomposable outer shell and packaging materials.
When littered, the toxic chemicals and the plastic in vape waste degrade and leach into the environment, contaminating ecosystems such as creeks, lakes, rivers and wildlife.
In the Philippines, vapes or e-cigarettes remain a fairly new category subject to excise taxes as embodied in the recently approved Vaporized Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Products Regulation Act.
Framers of the Vape law did not immediately put a ban provision on disposables since the primordial task was to first capture potential lost revenues after years of allowing the industry to go unregulated.
But if, in the near-term, the illicit trade in vapes continues to persist to the extent of reaching “parity” with contraband cigarettes, lawmakers may have to revisit the measure and introduce an outright ban.
There’s no use in trying to tax an industry that does not want to play fair while continuously hurting the health of our young and polluting our environment.
Should we ban toxic politics as well?
We were shocked, as many right-thinking Filipinos should have responded, by the recent statement of former President Rodrigo Duterte that he wants Mindanao to secede from the Republic and henceforth become an independent state.
Coming from the former Chief Executive who is also a lawyer, the proposal is outlandish and patently unconstitutional as the State, through the armed forces, has the duty to ensure the integrity of the national territory.
National Security Adviser Eduardo Año is well within his scope of authority to declare that any move toward secession of any part of Philippine territory would be met with resolute force.
Over at the House of Representatives, there’s a move by the sitting Camiguin representative to investigate and look into the possible expulsion of former Speaker and currently Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez for advocating an independent Mindanao.
Alvarez, according to Duterte, would lead the gathering of signatures from people across Mindanao who support the idea.
Duterte’s bombshell amid the break-up of the UniTeam between the Marcos-Duterte families in the 2022 elections reflects a rather toxic political atmosphere that could set back efforts at economic advance and social cohesion less than two years after the Marcos Jr. administration assumed office.
We can’t predict what lies ahead, but one thing is sure: the uncertain political situation isn’t going to help the economy any.
(Email: ernhil@yahoo.com)
