MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian on Wednesday, January 22, raised the alarm on the proliferation of illegal cigarettes and vape products on online platforms, becoming more easily accessible to the public.
In the Committee on Ways and Means hearing on the illicit trade of excisable products, Gatchalian showed screenshots of illegal tobacco products being sold on major online selling platforms in the Philippines. The photos were reportedly taken just minutes before he presented them. Some of the illegal products can even be purchased in bulk.
“This is a gateway. You’re becoming now the gateway to [increasing] in smoking prevalence, so let me direct both of you to join forces, find some ways to stop this from happening in your platforms, because the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) can only do so much. They monitor everything under the sun,“ Gatchalian said.
The senator said that tobacco products are highly regulated, adding that the Internet Transaction Act (ITA) will soon be implemented to prevent such illegal trade.
However, he said that even before the government steps in, the platforms should do their part.
“The first line of defense is always with the platforms. Because the platforms know all the transactions, all the products being posted there in your platform,” he said.
During the hearing, DTI Director for the Office of the Special Mandate on Vape Marcus Valdez II reported that from January 8 to 20, they have already taken down 2,588 posts for illegal tobacco products.
From August 2023 up to January 13, the DTI has taken down 4,539,229 posts for tobacco products on online selling platforms, he added.
The senator asked representatives from online platforms such as Shopee and Lazada what measures they are taking to prevent the sales of illicit tobacco products.
Gatchalian said that sellers circumventing current preventive measures on the platforms is not a good excuse, as the firms already have knowledge on what the products are and how many are being sold.
“If the platforms allow this, it will happen. Second line of defense will be DTI using their take down powers, investigation and take down powers. So my question is what is Lazada and Shopping doing to prevent this?” he asked.
Shopee representative Jem Hans-Segovia said the company is already making preparations for the implementation of the ITA in June.
“We are working on certain system improvements to allows us to further collect permits and licenses from our sellers so that we can further screen which products are prohibited and which are not,” she said.
Meanwhile, Lazada Head of Government Affairs Ken Estiller said that they are also working on several safeguards for their systems, but admitted that it will take time to implement since it is a platform wide change.
“We have discussed this internally on modifying our age dating measures for it to be much more stricter and at least, hopefully, harder to bypass, in relation to like, utilizing facial recognition features so to speak where the face of the buyer needs to match the ID,” Estiller said.