For Anthony Leachon, the sin tax is a personal issue.  He lost his mother to breast cancer. Recently, his sister was diagnosed with double malignant breast cancer. “My dad used to smoke,” he says ruefully. “My brothers-in-law still smoke. My younger brother, with lung nodule at age 45, smokes, too.”

Leachon, a medical doctor, is a passionate advocate. He is on the frontlines of the battle against smoking and he and his colleagues are up against big tobacco companies and their allies in Congress.

The Senate is expected to vote on the sin tax bill, which aims to generate billions of pesos in revenues to fund the health care needs of most Filipinos, soon. The dream was to raise P60 billion, as provided in the original bill in Congress, but this was watered down to P30 billion. In the Senate, this figure will even be whittled down further!

Ideally, revenues from the sin tax will fund the enrolment of 10.9 million Filipinos who belong to our poorest families, the upgrade of government hospitals, hiring of thousands of doctors, nurses, and midwives, among others.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona has publicly complained about a strong lobby against this measure. While he hasn’t named the companies and personalities, it is easy to guess who they are.

Fortune Tobacco, owned by Lucio Tan, is into a 50-50 joint venture with Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc, maker and distributor of Philip Morris, Marlboro, Hope, Champion and Fortune brands. These brands enjoy the biggest slice of the Philippine market.

Top killer

To counter this powerful lobby, Ona and his team have marshaled vivid and disturbing facts about tobacco use in the country, making it a significant contributing factor to the top  killer-diseases: ischemic heart disease or commonly referred to as “atake sa puso,” cerebrovascular disease or more popularly known as “stroke,” emphysema, bronchitis and cancer of the lungs.   

Here they are:

    •    The Philippines is the number 1 smoking country in Southeast Asia.
    •    Smoking is the number 1 cause of stroke and heart attack, about 50,000 deaths per year, according to the national nutrition and heart survey of 2008.
    •    The total annual cost of the 4 leading smoking-related diseases is a whopping P188 billion, according to a study by Dr. Antonio Dans, a professor at the University of the Philippines college of medicine.
    •    We have one of the lowest prices in cigarette and cigarette taxes.
    •    It’s the young boys and girls, aged 13-15 years, who smoke the most, again, the highest in Southeast Asia.
    •    The poor smoke more than the rich thus they are the most vulnerable to diseases.

Thailand’s example

President Aquino has made this bill one of his priorities. So far, he has not put the weight of his tremendous political capital, shored up by high popularity ratings, behind the bill.

Look at Thailand’s success. From 1991 to 2007, says Ona, Thailand increased the tax rate on tobacco in a series of 8 steps, increasing the retail price of the most popular brand by nearly 400%. This almost tripled Thailand’s annual tobacco tax revenues.

On the public health side, adult smoking rates decreased in a period of 15 years, from 30% in 1992 to 18% in 2007. “This gradual decrease in smoking rates proves that the increase in tobacco excise tax will not kill the industry nor result in the significant displacement of either farmers or manufacturers,” Ona explained, to rebut the claim of the tobacco companies.  

In the Philippines, the proposed increase in price of cigarette per stick is miniscule, compared to Thailand. A stick of Philip Morris, as of June 2012, costs P2. Depending on which bill will be passed, the price will go up to either P2.91 or P3.01.

We don’t need a code to decipher why many of our legislators are on the side of the tobacco companies.  Our society is steeped in vested interests. This same coterie of big business and elite families funds the campaigns of politicians, including in the House of Representatives, Senate and the presidency.

In this vicious cycle, public interest is a casualty.

Transformative leadership    

Whatever happened to transformative leadership, Aquino’s buzzword during the campaign? It seems to have been sidelined.

It will take more than rhetoric and leadership by example to achieve real reforms, to unshackle our politicians from vested interests.

The lack of political will may be a tired and overused phrase, but it will continue to explain some of our country’s legislative failures.

A leadership that is bold on rhetoric and weak in action will keep us where we are, a country wherein the state succumbs to the 10 percenters, the elite who control most of the nation’s wealth. – Rappler.com