The inability of the management of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. to address massive corruption that led to wastage of billions of pesos to various fund scams is hurting the tobacco industry that is credited as the largest financial contributor to the State medical insurer.
House Deputy Speaker and Ilocos Sur Rep. Deogracias Victor “DV” Savellano slammed PhilHealth officials and personnel being linked to corrupt activities, noting that the sacrifices of the tobacco farmers has been put to naught due to the actions of unscrupulous officials in the State health insurance firm.
In a manifestation at Wednesday’s joint congressional inquiry into the PhilHealth scams, Savellano called for swift and strong measures that would put an end to the long-standing corruption in the agency, saying that justice can be served the tobacco industry if the culprits are charged and the missing funds are recovered.
He explained that taxes coming from the tobacco industry have been on a steady rise to fund the programs of PhilHealth and the Department of Health. Thus, unabated fund scams at PhilHealth have adversely affected the tobacco industry and its farmers.
“Magkakabit ang bituka ng PhilHealth at industriya ng tabako (PhilHealth and the tobacco industry are closely linked),” Savellano said.
Savellano said over two million people are into farming and production of tobacco which has contributed some P147.6 billion in excise tax to the government in 2019.
He said taxes imposed on tobacco and its derivatives have been steadily climbing to fund the government’s health programs.
The House official recalled that when Republic Act 10351 or the Sin tax Law was implemented in 2012, excise tax on tobacco rose to a whopping 1,554 percent.
From P2.72 excise tax per pack of cigarette, the imposable tax rose to P45.
“Pinataw pa natin ang RA 10963 o TRAIN Law noong December 2017, RA 11364 noong June 2019, at RA 11467 noong January ng taong ito. Tumaas ang excise tax mula 2017 hanggang 2020 ng 50 percent. (We iimplemented RA 10963 or TRAIN Law on Decmeber 2017; RA 11467in January 2020. Excise tax increased from 2017 to 2020 by 50 percent),” said Savellano.
Among the all products, tobacco the strongest impact of the excise tax laws .
Savellano stressed that the burden brought about by these taxes have been “on the shoulders of the tobacco farmers.”
But while the taxes have been rising, the number of tobacco farmers have also been shrinking, from 55,763 in 2014 to 29,839 today.
From 38,264 hectares in 2014, tobacco farmlands have decreased to 18,912 hectares.