President Marcos renewed his commitment to protecting public health, saying it is more important than recovering lost revenue from smuggling.

Marcos said this as he led the inspection and condemnation of seized smuggled electronic vapes at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) grounds in Manila on Monday morning, April 7.

In his speech, the President said the seized smuggled products pose a serious threat to public health.

"Far and beyond the loss in revenue to the government, more important to us are the health issues that these smuggled vapes raise," he said.

"Kasi hindi naman natin malaman, hindi natin mainspeksyon, smuggled nga, hindi natin mainspeksyon, hindi natin alam kung saan galing (Because we can’t find out, we can’t inspect them—since they’re smuggled—we don’t know where they came from)," he added.

A total of 2,977,925 pieces of forfeited electronic vapes, along with vape parts and accessories valued at P3.26 billion, were confiscated following 10 seizure operations conducted by the Port of Manila, Manila International Container Port, and the BOC Intelligence Group.

Threat to public health

Marcos warned that some of the vape liquids were found to contain harmful substances.

"Yung iba dito na ininspeksyon natin, ay nahanapan, may lason na nakapasok doon sa liquid na ginagamit na pang-vape (Some of these, upon inspection, were found to contain poison in the liquid used for vaping)," he said.

What troubled the President more was how the products were being marketed.

"Lalong-lalo na nakakabahala dahil kung titingnan natin yung packaging, yung packaging talagang para sa bata (It’s even more concerning because if we look at the packaging, it really looks like it’s for kids)," he said.

"So unang-una, tuturuan, gusto nilang maadik ang bata sa vape (So first of all, they want to teach kids, they want kids to get addicted to vape)," he added.

'Keep it up'

President Marcos lauded the coordinated efforts of the different government agencies, noting a steady increase in the volume of smuggled vapes intercepted by authorities since 2023.

"I think sa 2023, ang nahuli natin mga 3-point-something billion yata ang halaga (I think in 2023, we seized something like 3-point-something billion pesos worth)," he said.

"Nagdoble yun last year (That doubled last year), and just from January to March, we are well on our way also to achieving even more seizures of these illegal vapes," he added.

"Keep up the good work. We are beginning to see success to all of your efforts. Keep it going," he continued.

According to Malacañang, in 2024 alone, the BOC conducted 48 operations to smuggled vapes and e-cigarettes, amounting to P6.658 billion in confiscated goods.