TRAIN derailing workers
pressed strong opposition to the Senate version of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) bill, particularly the provision on a radical increase in the tobacco sin tax under the TRAIN’s first package.
TUCP is the biggest confederation of labor organizations in the Philippines, composed of 36 federations with a combined 1.2 million membership from all sectors and industries, including agriculture. In his letter to Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, chair of the Senate ways and means committee, Mr. Torres said: “Every time a move to increase the tobacco sin tax is proposed, thousands of tobacco farmers and laborers are faced with the threat of losing their primary source of income and livelihood.”
He cited data from the National Tobacco Administration showing nearly 10,000 farmers displaced in 2015 alone. This was supported by the Philippine Statistics Authority’s latest Labor Force Survey reflecting an increase in the country’s unemployment rate from 5.8% in January 2016 to 6.6% in January 2017, or 2.8 million Filipinos unemployed — with the Ilocos Region registering the highest unemployment rate at 8.7%.
Some three million Filipinos are employed in the tobacco industry, and according to Mr. Torres, they have already contributed to the national coffers when tobacco excise revenues reached a high of P100 billion in 2015.
“Amidst their fair share to the national income, it is unfortunate that this sector is always targeted as the sole ‘big’ potential source of national revenues for the government,” he lamented, noting the further loss in manufacturing jobs since the enactment of Republic Act (RA) 10351 or the Sin Tax Reform Law of 2012. Last month, British American Tobacco Co. announced its intention to completely close its operations in the Philippines.
Meanwhile, Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) President Ruben Presilda requested Mr. Angara for information on how the farmers’ share of tobacco excise taxes are being utilized. He recalled that FFF Chairman Leonardo Montemayor, former