Malacañang, DOH prod Senate to pass measure raising ‘sin’ taxes

Malacañang and the Department of Health on Thursday urged the Senate to pass a measure that aims to increase the taxes on “sin” products such as alcohol and cigarettes.

Strategic Communications Secretary Ramon Carandang said that the measure, once signed into law, would generate over P31 billion in the first year of implementation alone.

“These funds would go to expanding basic health care, particularly for poor Filipinos. There are 17.3 million smokers in the Philippines. Many of them are from lower income classes, and cannot afford proper medical treatment when they develop illnesses from smoking,” Carandang said.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona also asked the Senate on Thursday to pass the bill, saying that the increase in excise tax would discour- age the consumption of alcohol and tobacco products and would generate funds for the universal health care program.

“Let us all support the Sin Tax Reform bill in order to prevent people, especially the young and the poor from taking up the habit and at the same time increase funds for our healthcare,” Ona said.

“With the passage of this bill, we can sustain the enrollment to PhilHealth of an estimated 10.7 million families belonging to the poorest 40 percent of the population, modernize our hospitals and other health facilities and expand our existing public health programs for health promotion and prevention,” he added.

Discussions start

The Senate Committee on Ways and Means started discussing the sin tax bill also on Thursday.

But members of the committee found the House version of the measure unfair, saying that it would mandate unequal imposition of taxes on cigarettes and liquor and could even render families dependent on the tobacco industry jobless once passed.

Ways and Means Committee Chair Sen. Ralph Recto however reminded the senators that the main issue is if House Bill 5727 will be fair once approved.

Recto said that while he believes that there is a need to raise taxes imposed on cigarettes and liquor, it should be done in an equitable manner.

Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile and Sen. Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jr. have similar positions. Enrile said that taxation must be fair. “We must come up with some- thing equitable that will generate revenues,” he said.

Marcos explained that he is not against raising taxes, but it should be done without depriving citizens of their livelihood. He said that the government should also consider the possible effects of the bill on tobacco farmers, retailers and traders and should have an effective means to provide them with alternative livelihood.

On one hand, Senate Finance Committee Chair Sen. Franklin Drilon expressed support for the bill.

He said that poor people suffer more from smoking than the wealthy because they cannot afford health care when beset with smoking-related diseases.

“That smoking has no known benefit is beyond question. It is costly, it is harmful to one’s health and it kills. That is a fact that has been proven by countless medical studies. And I know this from experience because my first wife died due to lung cancer,” Drilon said.

As for the supposed negative effects of cigarette smoking to human health, Enrile believes that there could be other factors like modern lifestyle and environment that contribute to the increase of cancer cases.

“I was smoking since I was nine years old and stopped when I was 65 and I never incurred a disease of any kind. I am now 89 years old. I am talking about myself only and I do not know of the others,” Enrile added.

He said in rural areas like in his province of Cagayan, farmers and fishermen smoke but he does not know of anyone who died of cancer, “instead they died of old age.”