PH should keep up with ASEAN neighbors on imposing total ban vs vapes – health group
December 5, 2024Health group warns, “Sin Tax Sabotage Bill” will hike cancer risk for Pinoys
February 3, 2025
Public health advocacy group, HealthJustice Philippines, condemned plans by lawmakers to implement a moratorium on excise tax for tobacco products. HealthJustice argued that suspending tax hikes on tobacco increases access to these harmful products, reduces funding for essential programs, and ultimately undermines public health goals.
A more decisive action should be to apply the same tax rates to cigarettes, heated tobacco products, vapes and other novel tobacco products, HealthJustice proposed.
“A pause in raising tobacco taxes or a rollback in tax rates is a flawed and deceptive solution to address illicit tobacco trade. An aggressive crackdown on importers, distributors, and retailers who engage in tobacco smuggling can best solve this,” said Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan, former Health Secretary and HealthJustice Board Member.
Galvez Tan continued, “Our lawmakers should realign their priorities towards public health, especially protecting the health of our youth. We urge them to reject any plan of a moratorium on tobacco tax increase and, in turn, impose equal tax rates on heated tobacco products and vapes to protect the youth from accessing these deadly products. This way we can reduce the expenditure in treating the diseases brought by tobacco and vapes while potentially boosting government tax revenues that fund our Universal Health Care Law.”
HealthJustice also echoed Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chairperson Senator Pia Cayetano’s dismay over the tobacco industry’s continued tactics to interfere in policymaking.
“It never fails to amaze me how the tobacco industry keeps finding ways to prioritize profit over public health. After weakening regulations on vaping, now they want to backtrack on sin taxes? It’s the same playbook – delay, distract, and derail progress. But let me be clear: public health is not negotiable,” exclaimed Senator Pia Cayetano in a statement.
This past week, both the House of Representatives and the Senate held separate committee hearings to address the proliferation of the illicit trade of tobacco products. House lawmakers said they were considering temporarily lifting the automatic 5% annual increase on tobacco excise tax until 2026 to stabilize tax revenues grossly minimized by smuggled tobacco products. Meanwhile, tobacco industry representatives proposed the same initiative during the Senate hearing.
Dr. Esperanza Cabral, former Health Secretary, emphasized, “Proposing a moratorium on tobacco taxes only protects the business interests and profits of big tobacco companies, when in fact, the health of Filipinos, especially children, should be put first and foremost. We strongly urge our lawmakers to resist attempts by the tobacco industry to hijack public health policies and have the moral imperative to defend our nation’s right to health.”
Enacted in 2012, the Sin Tax Law increased taxes on tobacco products that remarkably reduced tobacco use among adult Filipinos from 29.7% in 2009 to 23.8% in 2015, and further dropped to 19.5% or 15 million adults in 2021.
Contact person/s:
Mariz Amante Wee
Communications Officer, HealthJustice
+63998-885-1080 / +974-669-86655
Anelle Cortez
Project Coordinator, HealthJustice
+639178139696
