Tobacco farmer supports enactment of Universal Health Care
By: Lottie Salarda
Tags: Philippines

By: Lottie Salarda

Candon City, Ilocos Sur — Clarito Raganit has been trained to check, maintain, and fix electrical systems that help keep modern ships running.

But the marine electrical technology graduate has chosen to stay on land to pursue his vocation.

Now 46-years old, Raganit is a tobacco farmer, just like his father and his father’s father before him.

However, it wasn’t just family tradition that made him want to plant, harvest, and sell tobacco. It was also because tobacco farming pays well.

Raganit is one of the 700 tobacco growers and farmers in 27 of 42 barangays in Candon City. He is also the vice-president of the Candon City Tobacco Farmers Cooperative, which has 100 members.

However, unlike other tobacco farmers, Raganit is in favor of increasing taxes on the very same product that he grows on his farm in Candon City, Ilocos Sur.

With higher tobacco taxes, the government will be able to bankroll the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law, a piece of legislation that has just been signed by President Rodrigo R. Duterte.

As a result, Filipinos will soon be able to enjoy free medical consultation, hospital confinement, laboratory tests, out-patient services, and even medicine, among others, all because of higher tobacco taxes.

These additional health services will be funded by taxes that will be collected under separate Senate bills that will increase taxes by either P60 or P90 per pack of cigarettes under SB 1605 of Senator JV Ejercito or SB 1599 authored by Senator Manny Pacquiao, respectively.

Raganit wants free and quality health care coverage in his province, not only for his fellow tobacco farmers but for all the residents.

Other tobacco farmers refuse to support tobacco excise tax as they believed that it would only give additional burden to them without realizing the fact that such measure would help improve the health services of the government and lessen the prevalence of smoking in the next generation.

“Mas maigi yan para sa mga tao lalo na sa aming maliliit na magsasaka. Problema din kasi naming dito ang access para sa medical na serbisyo. Yan lang naman ang aming kagustuhan,”[It will be better for poor people, especially the farmers. After all, access to medical services has been our problem. That is just what we want.] Raganit said.

As expected, Raganit’s sentiments is shared by several health advocates who have lobbied for significant provisions for a people-centered UHC.

Based on his contract with Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corporation (PMFTC) Inc., Raganit is required to produce 1,800 kilos of processed tobacco on each hectare of his two-hectare plantation.

Every crop season, PMFTC lends him P100,000 for his two-hectare tobacco farm or P50,000 per hectare. He pays for the loan without interest after selling the tobacco leaves to the company.

Besides tobacco, Raganit also plants corn and peanuts, if only to cover his family’s daily needs as he waits to harvest tobacco

“Ganun lang naman ang buhay ng magsasaka, kailangan mag-survive habang hindi pa panahon ng anihan,” [That’s how the life of a farmer goes. You need to survive while you wait for harvest season.] he said.

But in 2016, his life as well as the lives of his fellow tobacco farmers began to get better.

Excise tax share

During that year, the national government started to release the share of excise taxes belonging to local governments, as indicated by Republic Act №10351. Enacted in 2012, the law restructured and amended excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco. These fund releases were also intended to later help farmers adjust to higher tobacco taxes and take steps to move to alternative crops.

Just for 2016 alone, the national government released P41 billion for the share of excise taxes of all LGUs, Candon City included.

Department of Budget and Management records during that year showed that Candon City received P1.04 billion as its share of tobacco taxes.

From 2016 to 2017, the bulk of the tobacco excise tax share releases — more than P36 billion — went to Ilocos Sur, La Union, Ilocos Norte and Abra, provinces producing Virginia tobacco.

Seventy percent of the shares went to cities and municipalities, allotted using a formula based on volume of production, while the remaining 30 percent went to provincial governments.

Programs for tobacco farmers

Candon City is one of the top ten local government units in Ilocos Sur that receives tobacco taxes as stipulated under Republic Act 7171 (An Act to Promote The Development Of The Farmer in The Virginia Tobacco Producing Provinces).

Based on Candon City’s official website, Mayor Ericson Singson spent P12.3 million for financial assistance to the 700 tobacco growers in 2018. The money helped subsidize costs of gasoline and oil, wood for fuel, seedlings, tobacco barn repair and maintenance, and other needs of the tobacco growers.

Candon City also provides a P15,000 subsidy per hectare every cropping season, excluding other inputs like fertilizers and others farming needs.

“Yung sa RA 7171, bale ang epekto sa amin nun ay gumaan,” [RA 7171 helped make our lives easier.] said Raganit.

Since 2010, the value of production increased from P2.54 billion pesos to P3.80 billion pesos in 2017 while the earmark of RA 7171 increased from P4.73 billion in 2010 to P14.40 billion in 2017.

Data from General Appropriations Act shows that tobacco excise tax collection allocated for tobacco-growing regions for farmers’ support is more than four times bigger than the value of tobacco production in 2017.

Excise taxes also funded the construction of farm-to-market roads and multi-purpose buildings, the farmers said, adding that these infrastructure projects helped their city’s economic development.

LGUs from Region 1 and 2 proposed 3,173 infrastructure projects to the Department of Budget and Management which 573 was dedicated for Multi-purpose halls/buildings.

Recommendations from farmers

The infrastructure projects aside, the tobacco farmers still felt that there could be more that government can do for them even as they acknowledge the positive developments.

“Gusto sana namin ng mga proyekto o programa na direkta sa amin. Katulad ng maayos na health services, oo may Philhealth nga kami pero hindi naman sapat iyon. At sana magkaroon ng SSS ang aming mga farmers dito,” [We wish there could be more programs directly for us. There is PhilHealth medical insurance but it is not adequate. And we hope there can be coverage under the Social Security System] Raganit said.

“Saan naman manggagaling ang mataas na kita nila [cigarette companies] kundi sa aming mga farmers diba? Natatakot din kami baka ipapasan sa amin ang dagdag na buwis ng mga kumpanya,” [Where would their profits come from if not for us farmers? We’re just afraid the added tax burden doesn’t get passed on to us] Raganit added.

Despite the higher prices of basic commodities due to inflation over the years, the cigarette companies have not improved their buying price at P93.00 per kilo for the past three to four years, thus tending to distort status of living: “Dati okay pa kasi hindi pa ganun ka mahal ang bilihin, ngayon mahal na ang lahat.” [Before it was not as bad, but living costs have gone up]

Meanwhile, Raganit and his fellow farmers have one suggestion: Instead of cigarette companies buying their produce directly, it should be the government takes over the selling of the tobacco for better economic leverage. ###