Hoarding forcing smokers to quit?

AFP PHOTO

Could cigarette retailers be actually doing sin tax supporters a favor and encouraging more smokers to quit sooner?

The idea was broached Thursday by sin tax supporters who maintained that manipulative traders—not the revenue-generating law—is to blame for the missing cigarettes as well as the unwarranted and sudden surge of prices.

The New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP), a cancer control and tobacco control advocacy group composed mostly of throat cancer survivors, said they are looking forward to the eventual phaseout of “tingi” (piecemeal) vendors on the streets through the sin tax to reduce the accessibility of cigarettes. Jeannette I. Andrade