Introduction:
This paper is a perceptual deterrence study of the Executive Order No. 26 of 2017 commonly known as Nationwide Smoking Ban Law being implemented in the Philippines. The Executive Order No. 26 is mainly based on the Classical Theory of Criminal law which stresses upon the punishable act rather than the violator himself. For this reason and for the current lax of enforcement of this law, “smoke-free” environment cannot be attained. Still, the penalization aspect of the law is justified as the law itself seeks to punish offenders for the wrong committed.

Objectives:
This paper contends that imposing deterrent factors: a.) certainty of being caught and b.) severity of the punishment offer no credible evidence in reducing cigarette smoking in public places particularly in urban schools. This paper also contends that the law must treat the smoking phenomena as public health related crime, and not a heinous crime which must be addressed by penalising the violators.

Methods:
This study examines the current perceived certainty and severity of the punishment based on the perception of Thomasian student-smokers in public places in the vicinity of University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines through quantitative and qualitative survey with 100 respondents. The data was subjected to statistical based analysis in accordance with perceptual deterrence study.

Results:
There is no causal and direct relationship between the extent of smoking and the law being implemented. The data were interpreted in relation to existing literature on the subject.

Conclusion(s):
The findings are not consistent with the Deterrence Theory. Changes in the approach of the law and its current implementation are essential to achieve desired goal. Smoking Ban can only be achieved as long as the government can create a strong impression that violators will be fined/caught. Certainty of being caught must be improved exponentially to achieve a smoke-free school environment.