Advocates of a law raising taxes on cigarettes worried that heavy lobbying by tobacco companies over the weekend could affect the vote in the Senate Monday.
Former Philhealth director Anthony Leachon and UP College of Medicine faculty member Antonio Dans said a failure of the bill to pass muster would deprive the government’s Universal Health Care program of funding.
“Definitely, the lobbying can affect how our senators will behave… how they will vote,” said Leachon, also chairman of the Council of Past Presidents of the Philippine College of Physicians.
But Leachon and Dans said they remained confident that senators who supported the sin tax law in 2012 would support the new round of increases on cigarette taxes.
These were Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Senators Panfilo Lacson, Francis Pangilinan, Antonio Trillanes IV and re-elected Senator Aquilino Pimentel III.
They are also hopeful that the incumbent senators who voted against the increase in the excise taxes on cigarettes in 2012—Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Senate Pro Tempore Ralph Rectp and outgoing Senators Francis Escudero and Gregorio Honasan—would have a change of heart.
While Pimentel, who ran in the last midterm elections, supported the increase in tobacco taxes in 2012, he did not sign Senator Juan Edgardo Angara’s committee report, saying the bill should be properly scrutinized as it might result in the death of the tobacco industry.
The two doctors said they hope senators who won a second term—Pimentel, Grace Poe, Cynthia Villar and Angara—would support their cause.
They are also counting on the votes of outgoing Senators Loren Legarda and Escudero.
Escudero did not vote for the increase in tobacco taxes in 2012 while Legarda was not around when senators cast their votes.
“We hope that our senators would see the significance of this bill to generate revenues for the UHC program and curb the prevalence of smoking,” Leachon said.
He said he hoped the senators would not waste the opportunity of passing a key reform.
In a letter to Sotto, House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the House would adopt and support the Senate’s decision on the excise tax to be imposed on cigarettes to hasten congressional approval before the 17th Congress adjourns this week
The President has certified the sin tax bill as priority legislation. A certified bill, if approved on second reading, is immediately voted on third and final reading. This does away with the rtwo-day printing rule.
Leachon and Dans pointed out that raising the tax on cigarettes is tantamount to saving at least 1 million Filipinos from the harm of smoking.
They noted that smoking in the Philippines remains relatively high at 23 percent compared to other countries with successful tobacco control initiatives.
With the current excise tax rate on cigarettes, they warned that an increase of 1.4 million smokers is projected in 2022.
In an interview over DZBB yesterday, Drilon said senators agreed to introduce amendments today on the sin tax bill and since it was certified urgent, they can pass it on 2nd and 3rd reading then send it to Congress.
The Senate leadership led by Sotto, Zubiri and Angara vowed to exert all efforts to ratify the Senate and the House bicameral conference committee report on the bill before they go on break.
Angara’s committee has been conducting a hearing on three separate bills filed by Senators JV Ejercito, Sherwin Gatchalian and Manny Pacquiao, which recommended raising taxes on cigarettes by P90, P70, and P60 hike per pack, respectively.
The committee report seeks to raise the excise tax on every cigarette pack from P45 to P60 over the next four years.
Angara said the committee “did a delicate balancing act in considering a measure that will reconcile the competing interests of the government, health advocates, the cigarette industry and tobacco farmers.He said the tobacco tax hike bill is an important legislation because it would not only help reduce deaths and disabilities due to smoking, but also generate revenues for the UHC program.
The Department of Health said 85 percent of the proceeds from the excise tax will be used to finance government health programs, including the UHC.
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