Duterte warns judiciary against stopping vaping ban
Credit to Author: Catherine S. Valente, TMT| Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2019 14:34:08 +0000
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday warned the judiciary against issuing a temporary restraining order (TRO) on his latest directive to ban the use and importation of vaping products in the country.
In his speech during the 80th anniversary of the Department of National Defense in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, the President said he would not honor TROs that might be issued by the court against his order.
“They said, what’s the law? Never mind the law. The law will come. Tell them who — I ordered it. And I’m asking the judiciary. Any judge. I’m asking myself to the Supreme Court. I’m here, I’m having a hard time controlling crime and you know all sorts of toxic materials being imbibe by the young. And there are some importations now,” Duterte said.
“Judges, I warn you, do not issue restraining orders to the Customs, to the Coast Guard. I will not obey your order because of the peculiar situation this country finds,” he added.
Duterte made the statement a day after he ordered the ban on the use and importation of vaping devices all throughout the country.
This came following the first reported case of an illness related to vaping involving a 16-year-old girl from Central Visayas.
While Duterte has yet to issue a written order to back his ban on vaping, the Philippine National Police on Wednesday began its crackdown on users and vendors of e-cigarettes.
In his latest speech, the President reiterated his order to the state forces to arrest anyone who will defy his order.
“I immediately ordered last night to confiscate and arrest people vaping in public places. Meaning to say, the safest way to do it is in your house. But if you are not that stupid, when you do that, you contaminate all including your children in the family,” Duterte said.
“And that is why in public places I told them to arrest. Because there is a law which says that you cannot distribute toxic materials in public places. Verily cigarette. And add to that bears the surgeon, general report of the United Nations. It used to be the requirement that cigarette smoking will cause cancer or will cause you death. And this has been validated by our own health people,” he added.