MALACAÑANG is confident that the sin tax bill will be passed earlier than the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill.

In an interview aired over state-run Radyo ng Bayan (dzRB), Palace deputy spokesman Abigail Valte said that they are hoping for the passage of the sin tax bill since it is already in the Senate.

However, Valte noted that Malacañang is leaving to the pace of Congress the passage of the RH bill.

“At least for the sin taxes we’re very hopeful that it will continue to move forward. For the responsible parenthood, as we’ve said, we cannot impose our own timetable on members of the Congress and it will be up to them really,” Valte said.

meanwhile, Valte said that Malacañang is optimistic that reason will prevail in the debates surrounding the passage of the controversial bill in Congress.

“I understand that they are expecting a debate because the advocates already want to push the debate to the plenary and to vote on it finally. But we don’t know what will happen. We’re also just waiting on the resumption of the debates in Congress on the Responsible Parenthood Bill,” she added.

Voting threat
Meanwhile, tobacco farmers on Sunday warned Senators who are running for re-election in the 2013 midterm polls that they will lose millions of votes from tobacco-producing provinces if they support the sin tax reform bill imposing exorbitant taxes on locally produced cigarettes, introduced by Sen. Franklin Drilon.

The PhilTobacco Growers Association (PTGA), said that tobacco farmers, workers, their families and allies in related industries would join forces and strongly campaign against incumbent Senators who will support Drilon’s version of sin tax bill.

“Some of our lawmakers think that they can just turn their backs on us and brush our concerns aside . . . We have appealed several times for our lawmakers to hear our side and take into consideration our source of livelihood in pondering a plan by some to impose extremely high taxes on cigarettes. We are tried of asking for mercy. It is time for us to act and show them that they cannot just ignore us,” said President Saturnino Distor of the PTGA.

Senators Loren Legarda, Francis “Chiz” Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano, Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan 2nd, Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel 3rd and Antonio Trillanes 4th are seeking re-election in next year’s polls.

Apart from tobacco farmers, workers and their dependents, re-electionist lawmakers supporting the Drilon’s proposal to impose high cigarette taxes would also antagonize 48 percent of Filipino adults who are smokers and of voting age because cigarette prices will increase threefold starting January, said Distor.

Killing the industry
Drilon’s measure seeks to impose a 341-percent tax hike on low-priced cigarettes in the first year and annual increases that would amount to a cumulative 1,076 percent tax surge on the fourth year.

Distor expressed belief that Drilon’s ultimate goal is to kill the tobacco industry considering that 65 percent of the brands sold in the market are low-priced cigarettes, which would be the first to be wiped out of the market under the senator’s proposal.

“We will make sure that re-electionists who will support any proposal imposing extremely high taxes on cigarettes will regret their decision on Election Day,” Distor stressed.

But the PTGA is not closing its doors yet to the lawmakers as the organization still plans to hold dialogues with each of the re-electionist senators to explain to them why the pending excise tax measure being pushed by Drilon is anti-farmer, anti-poor and anti-consumer.

Distor claimed that senators who would ignore their appeal stand to lose around 4.5 million votes from the major tobacco-producing provinces of Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Abra, Cagayan, Isabela and Mindoro.

He noted that other provinces also produce tobacco such as Mt. Province, Ifugao, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Capiz, Iloilo, Leyte, Cebu, Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon, Davao, Zamboanga del Sur, Maguindanao, Cotabato and Saranggani.

Apart from those seeking re-election next year, Senatorial candidates who are allied with the administration party may also suffer the same fate of Drilon, the sponsor of the substitute sin tax reform bill, who is an ally of the present administration.