By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
I understand and fully support the rule banning the consumption or use of cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and vapes inside cemeteries. Such restrictions are reasonable, especially during times when large crowds visit to pay their respects.
What I cannot understand, however, is the logic behind the policy being implemented by the police at the Manila South Cemetery. According to a certain Sergeant Villareal, visitors carrying vapes are allowed to deposit them at the entrance and reclaim them upon leaving. Meanwhile, those bringing cigarettes are either told to leave them in their vehicles or have them confiscated outright.
This makes no sense. If the goal is to prevent smoking or vaping inside the cemetery, then the rule should apply equally to all smoking devices. Allowing one to be temporarily deposited while permanently confiscating the other is inconsistent and irrational.
Policies like this reflect poor planning and a lack of clear reasoning. The Manila Police District (MPD) should review and correct this confusing policy — not only for fairness, but also to maintain public trust and credibility in their enforcement practices.
Clearing the haze off taxes
In Congress, Cagayan Rep. Rufus Rodriguez has shown a wising up, figuring out how certain hazy distinctions not only result in confusion over vapes, as in the case of the MPD’s policing of cigarettes and vapes in cemeteries, but also in cheating the system of taxation.
Together with Party-list Rep. Maximo Rodriguez Jr., he filed House Bill No. 5364 seeking to abolish the tax distinction between vape juices and impose a single excise rate of ₱10 per milliliter, with a 5% annual hike starting 2027.
The measure targets a loophole long exploited by traders who misdeclare nicotine salt juices as freebase variants to dodge higher taxes. It’s the same logic gap: blurred rules, easy evasion.
Rodriguez’s bill cuts through the fog: simple, uniform, and fair. Whether in enforcement, taxation, or profit, the only way to make things right is to set clear-cut rules.
In the final analysis, whether it be ditching cigarettes and vapes at the gates of eternal gardens or tightening the screws on taxes for those who profit from hazy loopholes, the solution is clarity.
The problem doesn’t always lie in public defiance. However, authority loses its teeth when citizens see that logic goes missing, when rules are murky, and when enforcement is applied unevenly.
When policies are straight, fair, and firmly enforced, people follow without protest. Even smokers and those who make money off them will find reason to toe the line when policies and the law itself leave no room for haziness and confusion.
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