There is another cause for concern over the price increases of sin products.

When the prices of some goods go up, the prices of other unrelated goods and services also tend to rise. In effect, the increases have an inflationary effect which affects not only smokers and consumers of alcoholic products, but all consumers.

Throughout the archipelago, most sin products are bought in sari-sari stores. (Convenience stores are actually nothing more than glorified, air-conditioned sari-sari stores.) There is nothing to stop a store owner from increasing the prices of everything he or she sells by a few centavos or pesos more because the best selling products—cigarettes, beer and hard drinks like gin and brandy, for the most part—fall under the sin products category.

The DTI only steps in after the retail prices of essential consumer products like eggs, sugar, coffee, sardines and bread inexplicably go up, by which time it may be too late.

Today the prices of tobacco and alcoholic drink products are up. Tomorrow, everything else follows.