Where has all the money gone?

POOR patients, who are not members of the government’s PhilHealth program, are still deprived of healthcare in government hospitals when money collected from “sin taxes” should be enough to give them medical care

Why are tobacco farmers, who are mostly poor, not given financial support under the sin taxes law?

The taxes are imposed on “sin” products like cigarettes and liquor.

As of November 2015, figures at the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) showed that excise tax collections for cigarettes and liquor from January-November 2015, increased by 39.6 percent over the same period in 2014.

The BIR said that as of November 2015, taxes on cigarettes totalled P86.24 billion while taxes on alcoholic drinks amounted to P25.24 billion.

Since Republic Act 10351, popularly known as the Sin Tax Reform Law, was passed in 2012, the government’s collection from the sale of cigarettes and liquor has been enormous.

Proceeds of the sin tax law are supposed to go to funding the universal healthcare of patients in government hospitals who are not members of PhilHealth.

And yet pharmacies of most government hospitals do not have medicines which are supposed to be given free to indigent patients.

Where has the money collected from sin taxes gone?

The Department of Budget Management (DBM) has a lot of explaining to do.

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Under another law (RA 7171) passed years before the Sin Tax Reform Law, tobacco farmers in tobacco-producing provinces in the country get financial support from the government to be drawn from taxes on cigarettes.

These provinces are Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Abra, La Union, Pangasinan, Cagayan and Isabela.

Despite the robust collections from cigarettes, tobacco farmers in these places remain poor.

Again, where has all the money gone?

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On its own initiative, the Mighty Corp., makers of cigarettes of the same brand, has been providing high school and college scholarships to hundreds of children of tobacco farmers.

The company, through its Wong Chu King Foundation, named after the founder, has also been rebuilding and restoring centuries-old churches in tobacco-producing provinces, especially those with historical and cultural significance.

If a private cigarette company can do all those, why can’t the government, which is mandated by law to support tobacco farmers?

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Eight “nonperforming” customs collectors have been summarily dismissed from their posts after Congress declined to fund their salaries in the 2016 General Appropriations Act of 2016.

The eight inefficient collectors are retired military generals—repeat, retired military generals—who have not meet their collection targets since 2013.

There are 17 customs ports throughout the country, eight of these occupied by the retired military generals.

Those relieved of their ports were Ernesto Benitez, Port of Batangas; Mario Mendoza, Port of Manila; Esteban Castro, Clark Economic Zone; Elmir dela Cruz, Manila International Container Port; Arnulfo Marcos, Cebu; Jerry Loresco, Zamboanga; Bonifacio de Castro, San Fernando; and Rolando Ricafrente, Limay.

They were brought in by Deputy Customs Commissioner Jessie Dellosa, himself a retired five-star general and former Armed Forces chief of staff.

Dellosa himself is perceived to be a nonperformer or under-achiever by fellow customs officials and employees.