The Philippines may independently regulate e-cigarettes

According to the Philippine National News Agency, during a hearing of the fundraising committee of the Philippine House of Representatives, the chairman of the group and Alba province representative, Joe Salsada, stated that the "substitution effect" from cigarettes to e-cigarettes is having a "real impact" on tobacco consumption tax collection. And it is pointed out that the National Taxation Bureau (BIR) predicts that the tobacco consumption tax collection this year will decrease by at least 11%.
Salsada stated that Statista expects the e-cigarette market to reach 13.244 billion Philippine pesos, and using only free base rates and average prices, the industry should pay at least 5.56 billion pesos.
Salsada pointed out that for consumers, e-cigarettes are more "value for money" in terms of the number of times they are smoked, leading to a shift from cigarettes to e-cigarettes - each e-cigarette can smoke 10000 puffs and costs 490 Philippine pesos, while a pack of 300 puffs costs 125 Philippine pesos.