Senator Franklin Drilon INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The tumultuous roller coaster ride of the sin tax reform bill in the Senate is drawing to a close as debates and final amendments are set to be finished Tuesday.
Senator Franklin Drilon, the principal sponsor of the bill, said Monday that “there will still be individual amendments, but the critical portion of the bill as to how much incremental revenues must be generated from these so-called sin products are already agreed at P40 billion.”
“That is the crux and the meat of the sin tax bill,” Drilon said in an ambush interview.
The P40 billion will be divided 60-40 between cigarettes and liquor products which means P24 billion in additional revenues from cigarettes and P16 billion from liquor.
The bill was initially sponsored by Senator Ralph Recto, the former chairman of the Senate ways and means committee, and had a target of P15 billion in additional revenues.
Revenue and Health officials said they had felt betrayed by Recto because his version of the bill had a target that was significantly lower than their target of P60 billion.
Recto later resigned as head of the ways and means committee and Drilon became its acting chairman.
At the beginning of Monday’s session, the Senate had to set aside the deliberations on the sin tax bill after Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile made a motion to take up the Reproductive Health bill “before all other measures pending in the Senate”.
He said in a privilege speech that he was perceived as delaying the passage of the RH bill which he said was not true.
In a previous session, Senator Pia Cayetano, the principal sponsor of the RH bill, had made a request that the RH bill be taken up just for a few minutes to accommodate the few remaining senators who will propose amendments.
Enrile, however, said that he was not yet ready with his amendments. When asked by Cayetano when he would be ready, Enrile simply said “I do not know when I will be ready.”
The Senate then voted 11-3 to tackle the RH Bill first. Enrile proceeded to introduce his amendments, after which they then suspended consideration of the RH Bill and continued with debates on the sin tax bill.
The senators went into a caucus in the middle of the session where Drilon said they agreed on the P40 billion revenue target as well as the unitary tax rate for cigarettes being effective at the fifth year of the bill instead of the fourth year.
He said they were left with a creating formula to be able to reach the P40 billion and a few other amendments before it can finally be voted on.
“We will take up the amendments that will generate P40 billion; and then, we will take up other amendments principally on some corrections necessary because of the language; and we will receive amendments on the distribution of the incremental revenue,” Drilon said.
“After that, we will vote on second and third readings. There is no more issue on the amount that will generate P40 billion; and that is voted upon on the plenary,” he said.
The sin tax bill has been certified as urgent by President Benigno Aquino allowing it to be passed on second and third reading on the same day.