CONGRESS PASSES VAPING AND HTP BILL

The House of Representatives on Monday afternoon passed on third and final reading with 192 affirmative votes, 34 negative and four abstentions a proposed law to regulate the manufacture, use and sale of non-combustible alternatives to cigarettes such as vapes and heated tobacco products (HTPs).

The Senate is also deliberating on its own version of the bill on vaporized nicotine products.

House Bill No. 9007, a consolidation of 23 bills authored by 154 representatives, seeks to establish a clear and effective law and regulation on the manufacture, use, sale, packaging, distribution and communication of electronic nicotine and non-nicotine delivery systems (ENDS/ENNDS) or electronic cigarettes and HTPs which are considered non-combustible alternatives to cigarettes.

Once the House and Senate versions of the bill are enacted into law, the Department of Trade and Industry, together with the Department of Health are to issue the Implementing Rules and Regulations within 90 days. The approved version of the bill recognizes harm reduction measures as a public health strategy by ensuring that non-combustible alternatives to cigarettes are properly regulated.

Vapers PH, Nicotine Consumers Union of the Philippines (NCUP), Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA), and Philippine E-Cigarette Industry Association (PECIA) expressed their support to the landmark measure that recognizes and protects their rights to choose less harmful alternatives to cigarettes.

“The passage of House Bill No. 9007 is a win for Filipino consumers who have been long fighting for our voices to be heard. We laud the House of Representatives for finally recognizing our rights to choose less harmful products such as e-cigarettes and HTPs,” PECIA President Joey Dulay said.

Clarisse Yvette Virgino, CAPHRA’s Philippine Representative said, “the proposed Act will legitimize the market of vaporized nicotine products which means that consumers will have better protection. We hope that the Senate will also support this bill to provide millions of Filipino smokers with less harmful alternatives to combustible cigarettes.”

“We welcome the passage of HB 9007 by the House of Representatives which has shown its resolve to promote a progressive health policy that respects our rights as nicotine consumers and at the same time provides us options to switch to alternative nicotine products. We hope that the Department of Health and the Food and Drug Administration will also take the cue from Congress in recognizing harm reduction as a public health strategy,” NCUP President Anton Israel said.

“We would like to thank our congressmen for looking at scientific evidence in coming up with a bill that would provide Filipino adult smokers a choice to switch to less harmful alternatives to combustible cigarettes,” Vapers PH President Peter Paul Dator said.

AAMBIS-OWA Rep. Sharon S. Garin, one of the sponsors of HB 9007, said the proposed "Non-Combustible Nicotine Delivery Systems Regulation Act" will fill the gap in local regulation amid the proliferation of sale and use of HTPs and vaping products among Filipino consumers.

Garin said that as of 2020, 85 countries like the Philippines have no specific laws yet or regulation regarding nicotine vaping products.

It is estimated that there are nearly a million Filipino consumers of vaporized nicotine products and most of them were former smokers who switched to these smoke-free products, which Garin said, are substantially different, less harmful, and better than smoking cigarettes.

"Thus, this bill when passed into law, will provide for a holistic regulatory framework for vapor products and HTPs that takes into consideration and balance the interests of the general public, along with the stakeholders most interested in their use and sale," said Garin.

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