(MB FILE PHOTO/PIXABAY)
The Healthy Philippines Alliance (HPA) on Monday, Sept. 1, urged the government to impose higher taxes on unhealthy packaged food as a strong measure to curb noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), ahead of the upcoming UN High Level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of NCDs and Promotion of Mental Health this September.
The HPA, a coalition of public health advocates convened by HealthJustice Philippines, said taxing products high in sugar, sodium, and saturated fat would not only improve health outcomes but also generate revenue for vital programs.
“We urge our government leaders to act now. Take the lead to prevent NCDs with powerful policies like front-of-package warning labels paired with a tax system that can discourage the overconsumption of products high in sugar, sodium, and saturated fat,” Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan, former Health Secretary and lead convenor of HPA, said in a statement.
According to him, the policy should be seen not as a simple tax but as an investment to safeguard health, preserve lives, and strengthen the nation’s future.
Citing a modeling study by Johns Hopkins University and the DOST-Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), HPA said a 20 percent nutrient-based tax on unhealthy packaged food could stop 2,700 deaths over 20 years, prevent 13,600 ischemic heart cases, 5,000 strokes, and 21,700 type 2 diabetes cases.
The study estimated that while implementing the tax would require an investment of P13 billion ($253 million), it could yield P2.37 billion ($46 million) in health-care savings and close to P648 billion ($13 billion) in tax revenues.
“We are backed by research that shows taxing unhealthy packaged food and beverages can reduce the burden of NCDs, encourage healthier food choices, and generate vital revenue that can be reinvested into our Universal Health Care system and other nutrition programs,” Galvez Tan added.
The HPA stressed that the policy must be anchored on a Nutrient Profile Model.
“It is essential for the National Nutrition Council to establish the Philippine Nutrient Profile Model as soon as possible to support more comprehensive and targeted taxation of products,” the alliance stated.
Meanwhile, HealthJustice executive director Atty. Faith Laperal pushed back against criticism that such measures are anti-poor.
“Food taxes are often misunderstood as anti-poor. But what is truly anti-poor is forcing families to bear the heavy cost of preventable disease caused by cheap, unhealthy food. In fact, more and more Filipinos are dying prematurely due to NCDs,” Laperal said.
“Ultimately, the tax can reduce sugar intake by 7% or 3.8g a day and sodium intake by 10% or 100mg a day in the Filipino diet by the 20th year. This means more lives protected, deaths prevented, and cases of heart disease and type 2 diabetes reduced. Including foods high in saturated fat could lead to even greater health and economic impacts,” she went on.
Policy analyst Jofti Villena, a board of trustee of The Policy Center, said the proposed tax could reshape the country’s food environment.
“A tax on unhealthy food has the potential to significantly reduce poor diets, a leading driver of NCDs. Our government should help reshape our food environment so that it becomes much easier for Filipinos to choose healthier alternatives. Such a policy should also go hand-in-hand with other food policies to strengthen the accessibility of healthier food, like fresh produce from our farmers,” Villena said.
“We commend the legislators who have filed bills aimed at improving food security, and we urge broad support for these measures to help all Filipinos, especially vulnerable sectors, gain access to whole, nutrient-dense foods rather than relying mainly on convenient ultra-processed food like instant noodles and 3-in-1 coffee.”
According to the study, middle-income groups stand to gain the most health benefits from the measure, with more years lived in good health, while high-income groups would bear a larger share of the tax burden.
Low-income groups, on the other hand, were projected to experience greater reductions in sugar consumption.