The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urged President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. to veto the vape bill, stating that this is not a health measure.
"The Food and Drug Administration joins the Department of Health (DOH) in requesting the Presidential veto of Senate Bill No. 2239 and House Bill No. 9007, or the Vape Bill. The FDA strongly echoes the sentiments of the DOH that the Vape Bill is not a health bill," said FDA Officer-in-Charge Director General Oscar Gutierrez Jr. in a statement.
"Passing this bill will reverse the significant progress which has been made in former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte's administration---where landmark legislations and executive directives were issued," added Gutierrez.
Gutierrez said that vape products and heated tobacco products (HTP) are currently being marketed as alternative to conventional cigarettes, "while some claiming or implying that these products being safer or less harmful."
"However, these claims are based on opinion rather than empirical evidence, lacking the required studies and substantiations. Such statements that vapor products and HTPs are substantially safer than conventional cigarettes are misleading as these products contain harmful and potentially harmful constituents that are hazardous to human health," he said.
Gutierrez said that it is the DOH, through the FDA "which bears the constitutional mandate to protect every Filipino’s right to health by establishing effective regulatory systems."
"The FDA is the rightful authority, possessing the expertise, competencies, and manpower to develop standards to regulate and monitor novel tobacco products," he said.
He said that he "respectfully disagrees" with the intent of the Vape bill "which will transfer the regulatory jurisdiction of such products from the FDA to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)."
“In expressing this, the FDA does not intend to undermine the DTI, but rather the FDA wishes to respect the delineation made between the jurisdiction of the DOH and the DTI on consumer products in the Republic Act 7394, otherwise known as the Consumer Act of the Philippines, where health products, including hazardous substances, are under the jurisdiction of the DOH,” Gutierrez said.