The tobacco industry continues to promote death, according to Health Justice Philippines, a non-government organization advocating a healthy body and environment.
Health Justice Philippines managing director Irene Reyes on Monday criticized the strategies being employed by tobacco companies to undermine the sin tax law.
These strategies include “front-loading” their production in 2012 to avoid paying the higher tax rate in 2013 and conducting marketing campaigns that continue to target the youth, Reyes said in a press conference at a Quezon City restaurant.
“Others have been selling their products at a loss or at a discounted price in order to introduce new products and gain foothold in the market. All these strategies are to the detriment of the Filipinos,” she said.
Tobacco companies have continued to target the youth and the poor to counter the price increase from the sin tax law implementation.
One example is a campaign that aggressively targets the youth, “inspiring” teens who are struggling with their identity to stand up for what they believe in, with the underlying message: if you want to smoke, just go for it.
Reyes noted that the sin tax is an effort to protect the youth from tobacco and all the diseases it brings.
She said recent strategies employed by the tobacco industry demonstrated its disregard for the well-being of the people, undermining the efforts of the Philippine government and civil society organizations.
Dr. Ulysses Dorotheo, Project Director of Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) Initiative on Tobacco Tax, said the tobacco industry has been using smuggling as an issue to criticize the tobacco tax increase, especially with the recent decrease in the government’s excise tax collections on sin products this March.
But he insisted that raising taxes is not directly linked to increased smuggling. Illicit trade is a multi-factorial problem and not due primarily to higher tobacco taxes and prices, Dorotheo said.
“Research shows that other factors such as the level of corruption in the country and lax implementation of laws are the true factors that affect cigarette smuggling. In fact, many countries with high tobacco taxes have low levels of smuggling, while many countries with low taxes have high levels of smuggling.”
Engr. Emer Rojas, Global Cancer Ambassador and president of the New Vois Association of the Philippines, said smoking takes away the lives of 240 Filipinos.
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