Nicotine vapor products should carry an excise tax no lower than P80, health advocates told lawmakers this week, warning that anything softer would leave younger users exposed and saddle the country with avoidable medical bills down the line.
The push came from the Healthy Philippines Alliance (HPA), convened by HealthJustice, which took aim at a unified levy of P72.93 slated to take effect in 2027. That figure — meant to cover cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and vapor items alike — was put forward jointly by the Department of Finance and the Department of Health. Even at that level, the coalition argued, the tax would do little to keep vaping products out of reach.
For former Health Secretary Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan, who leads the alliance, the danger lies in treating vapes as benign. He cautioned that chronic heart and lung problems appearing early in life could translate into heavy expenses for the health system later on. “Vapes are far from harm-free,” he said.
Sharper criticism was reserved for a competing legislative track. Some lawmakers have floated setting the vape tax as low as P15 per milliliter — a move HealthJustice legal adviser Atty. Benedict Nisperos flatly rejected. Cheaper rates, he contended, would only widen young people’s access to nicotine-laden products. “We cannot allow lower tax rates that enable more addictive substances, like nicotine salt vapes, to proliferate in the market,” Nisperos said, branding the low-tax proposals “reckless and unacceptable.”
The group also pointed to how far the Philippines has drifted from its neighbors on regulation. Nisperos noted that eight of the 11 ASEAN member states have shut the door on vapor products entirely. The Philippines, by contrast, keeps them legal for sale under Republic Act 11900, the Vaporized Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Products Regulation Act.
