Tobacco monopolies were believed to have started during the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos wherein he first imposed import and tax incentives to a Philippine tobacco company, Fortune Tobacco which led to the creation of a policy monopoly (Harvard School of Public Health, 2013). Incentives were given due to President Marcos’ close ties with Mr. Lucio Tan, the founder of Fortune Tobacco. Due to the rise of anti-tobacco advocates all over the world, foreign tobacco companies seek to maintain their profits by looking for emerging markets. Since the Philippines was lenient in imposing taxation during the Marcos regime, only licensed agreements were created by foreign tobacco companies such as Philip Morris International …show more content…
It was led by Senator Franklin Drilon and Hon. Isidro Ungab wherein the House Bill 5727 or Sin tax bill was proposed. This reform aims to restructure the existing taxes imposed on alcohol and tobacco goods. It was mainly implemented to reduce the number of young and unprivileged people who engages in smoking and drinking excessively. Revenues collected from sin taxes will be allocated to health centers and projects that will benefit tobacco farmers and workers nationwide (Finance, 2013). Due to the Health Joint Memo Circular No. 2010-01, this was drafted and enforced without any biases for the tobacco industry. This removed the interference of the tobacco industry by depriving government agencies and officials to include their concern in the legislations. Throughout the drafting of legislation, only concerns regarding the tobacco farmers and health were tackled. The concerns of tobacco farmers were only heeded due to the concern in their livelihood but were later on addressed due to their benefit with the revenues. The Sin Tax law or R.A. No. 10351 was later on enforced in January …show more content…
Ona and President Aquino. For the first time in the country, progress was seen from two aspects: The taxation was able to reach 46 billion which exceeded the government’s target by 31.6%, and 67 percent (Pena, 2014), or seven out of 10 smokers who consumes 10 sticks per day, only buys one cigarette. A reduction of 35% from young people aging 18-24 who smokes in 2012 to 18% in 2014 was also seen (Mabasa, 2014). With the continuous success of President Aquino’s administration with regards to the taxation of products, it is even expected that the percentage of smokers will have a larger change before his term