The Health Department said it supports the Finance Department’s campaign to run after tax evaders in the cigarette industry, saying an additional P1 billion from tax payments could be used to treat over five million individuals suffering from diabetes and hypertension.
Health Secretary Paulynn Ubial said that based on initial calculations, some P1 billion could be used to pay for daily maintenance medicines, laboratory work and medical care for deadly diseases caused by tobacco use.
“With an augmentation of a mere P1 billion to the program, the DoH would be able to treat 3,975,421 patients with hypertension, and 1,705,030 with diabetes,” Ubial said.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III welcomed the DoH’s support and assured Ubial that Mighty Corp. would get no special treatment from the DOF or the Bureaus of Internal Revenue and Customs.