Doctors and other health professionals who are pushing for an increase in the excise tax on cigarettes will stage the “White March outside of the Senate” tomorrow (Tuesday) to express their hardline stance on the issue.
The health advocates will converge at the World Trade Center in Pasay City and then proceed to the Senate to witness the Senate ways and means committee hearing on the proposed increase in the tax on cigarettes.
Earlier, Senator Sonny Angara as committee chairman debunked allegations that his committee merely “sat” on the proposal to impose additional tax on cigarettes.
There are two pending Senate bills which seek to increase the price of cigarettes: One, filed by Senator JV Ejercito and the other, by Senator Manny Pacquiao.
Ejercito, chair of the Senate health committee, wanted a P90 per apck cigarette while Pacquiao opted for a P60/pack cigarette.
Angara said he acknowledges that sin taxes have been crucial and very important in funding health programs of the government,” he said.
“That is why our previous records would show that I have been supportive of past tobacco tax reforms such as the 2012 sin tax law, graphic health warning law, and the latest cigarette tax law being implemented this year,” he also said.
As one of the authors who pushed for the approval of the Universal Health Law, he said they are very determined to look for ways to fund it and make it work for the Filipino people.”
Philhealth Director Anthony Leachon, and one of the convenors of the march, stressed that the increase will provide crucial funding for the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act that will benefit the current and future generations of all Filipinos from womb to tomb.
“Indeed, sin taxes have played a significant role in boosting the health budget since the legislation of the Sin Tax Reform Act in 2012. Not only did the said law significantly raise the excise taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, but it also earmark a substantial portion of the incremental revenues for health,” he said.
As a result, he said the health budget has grown tremendously over the last six years, from P44 billion in 2012 to P171 billion in 2018. This is despite the law’s effectiveness in reducing the number of smokers in the country.
He also emphasized that raising the price of cigarettes through higher taxes is the single most effective way to encourage tobacco users to quit and prevent children from picking up the habit.
There are 13.05 million smokers in the Philippines.
“Are you for the health of every Juan De La Cruz ? Then let’s fight together for UHC and raising sin taxes for tobacco by not less than P60.00, Leachon said,
Leachon said UHC will be “dead” in the 17th Congress if it’s not passed by the first week of February, and it would be back to square one for efforts to fund the UHC.
He likewise warned that if pro-health legislators do not win, the program will be in danger and will deprive each Filipino access to healthcare.
The sin tax hike advocates have vowed to rally behind the re-election bid of senators and members of the House.
Last Jan. 18, leaders of 30 Philippine medical societies gathered to call for the Senate passage of a bill increasing the excise tax on cigarettes to at least P60 per pack.
The UHC , which is awaiting the signature of President Rodrigo Duterte to become a law, seeks to enroll all Filipinos under a state-backed health insurance program both as paying and non-paying members.This also intend to expand the government’s free health insurance program to millions of poor Filipinos, and it has been sent to President Duterte for his signature. Leachon, past PCP president, said re-electionist senators and House members could lose a “conservative estimate” of five million to six-million votes in the mid-term elections.
Dr. Antonio Dans of the National Science and Technology Administration (NSTA) also echoed Leachon’s warning, saying if higher tobacco tax isn’t passed before the election break, reelectionist lawmakers should face the consequence of their action.
“We are watching you. We have to hold you youre accountable for what you say and also for what you don’t say. So, we are going to fight as a profession to make this an election issue,” said Dans, founding president of the Philippine Society of General Internal Medicine.