Rodrigo Duterte Calls for Ban on Public Vaping in the Philippines

MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has ordered a sweeping ban on vaping in public, threatening to use the police and military to enforce what observers in the country have called a draconian order.

When Mr. Duterte, a former smoker, announced the ban in a speech on Tuesday, his statement caught many Filipinos by surprise but was largely ignored. But he reiterated the order on Wednesday in a long and at times rambling speech before the Department of National Defense, saying that vaping was “toxic” and could now be done only in private.

Mr. Duterte ordered the police to arrest anyone caught vaping in public in the Philippines, a largely Catholic nation in Southeast Asia that has some of the region’s toughest smoking laws.

Mr. Duterte said that many Filipinos, particularly young ones, used vaping devices without realizing the dangers they posed. This month, the Philippine Health Department reported the first case of vaping-related lung injury in the country. A 16-year-old girl was said to have been vaping for half a year before being hospitalized in October; she has since been released.

Smoking of vape

Update sa Bulkan Taal

Mga residente ng ilang lugar sa taal bumabalik paren sa kanilang lugar kahit na bawal itong puntahan at pasukin dahil sa pagaalboroto ng bulkan taal.

Kaylangan daw nilang pakainin ang kani-kanilang mga alagang hayop at bantayan ang kanilang mga naiwang gamit dahil ang iba raw dito ay nawawala o nananakaw ng ibang nakakapasok sa lugar.

Mga Pulis sundalong nakabantay mas hinihigpitan ang pagbabantay para walang makapasok na mga residente na gustong gusto paren pumasok kahit bawal.