BAGUIO CITY -- Tobacco farmers in three Ilocos Region provinces and Abra in the Cordillera Administrative Region recently agreed to ask the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) to raise the price of tobacco leaves up to P128 per kilo for unclassified leaves.
In the peasant organization's website, the farmers said in a statement that they came up with the clamor for higher tobacco prices in the wake of an anticipated tripartite conference on tobacco. Last year, a similar tripartite conference also involved air-line workers, who together with Fortune Tobacco employees, staged a march in Makati to oppose contractualization.
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The tobacco price the farmers have set will be higher by some P43 to P50 than the prevailing farm-gate prices in the past two years since 2010 in the provinces Ilocos Sur(P85), La Union(P80) and Ilocos Norte (P78), according to a statement by an Ilocano peasant organization. The last tobacco season, however, yielded only P73 for first-class leaves in La Union and Ilocos Sur. It was much lower in Abra (P70) and Ilocos Norte (P68).
Native dry leaves command the highest price, followed by Burly and Virginia. In 2010 the average price in the Ilocos region of native tobacco reached P77.42, Burley at P71.46 and Virginia at P46.44.
The clamor for higher tobacco price resulted from consultations that the Solidarity of Peasants Against Exploitation (Stop Exploitation) conducted among farmers in the four tobacco-producing provinces in north Philippines.
The farmers' group said that Ilocano and Abreno tobacco farmers and farm workers usually lose in the unfair trade relations with businessmen and politicians engaged in the tobacco trade. "It is very clear that there is a connivance between the NTA, local politicians and business enterprises as the Philip Morris International and the Universal Leaf Corporation to further plunge the price of tobacco deeper this year," Stop Exploitation quoted a farmer. The farmers said, "Awan man laeng ti tulong manipud kadagiti ahensya ti gobyerno ken dagiti lokal a yunit ti gobyerno nga agaw-awat ti minilmilyon a pisos
manipud ti RA 7171 ken RA 8240 (Government agencies and local government units offered no help despite them getting millions out of RA7171 and RA 8240)."
RA 7171 of 1992, or the Tobacco Excise Tax Law supposedly extends support to Virginia tobacco farmers, recognizing that they are the nucleus of the tobacco industry, which admittedly generates a handsome income for the government. It specified that 15% of Virginia-tobacco-related government revenue would be set aside for projects that would enhance the farmers' income, like building farm-to-market roads, alternative faming systems, increasing productivity, managment and subsequent ownership of agro-ndustrial projects.
RA 8240 is the Comprehensive Tax Reform Law, which changed from ad valorem to specific taxes those excised from tobacco manufacturing. A study conducted by Stop Exploitation shows that a farmer spends 157 work-days in a half-hectare farm for a tobacco season. Computed expenses is approximately P35,000.
The computation did not include the total cost of harvest but the farmers were saying that the prevailing low price of dry tobacco leaves further pushed them into the trap of loan sharks. A farm-worker, on the other hand, receives a messly P180 to P220 per day, with forced overtime when the workload is heavy.
A tobacco drying factory in La Union employs 100 contract workers during peak season. The contract-growers are not far behind, Like their counterparts who finance their own tobacco production, contract-growers are bound by the quota system and the prices dictated by financiers.
"Marigatan kami unay," (We are really hard up) they said, adding it could not continue to be this way while the businessmen in the industry are amassing millions. In 2009, the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) of the Department of Agriculture estimated the tobacco production as P3 billion, higher than tomato (P2.4 billion) and garlic (800 million).
Philip Morris Philippines and Fortune Tobacco Corporation agreed to put up the Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corporation (PMFTC), with Philip Morris reportedly acquiring 51% of the original FTC shares, leaving the remaining 49% to Lucio Tan, who also controls Asia Brewery, Philippine Airlines, Philippine National Bank and many other enterprises. Before the merger, it was FTC which reportedly monopolized the trade and manufacturing in the Ilocos Region.
Philip Morris International, meanwhile, controls more than 15% of the world's tobacco market, with assets and enterprises in different parts of the globe. It continues to buy out several tobacco corporations including Marlboro, Chesterfield, and many others. It now employs about 80,000 worldwide, with a multi-billion dollar worth of assets. Its Netherlands factory, opened in 1973, remains the PMI's largest factory.
PMI entered the Philippines in 2003, with its factory in Batangas being its largest investment in Asia at that time. In 2010 it invested in a P500-million tobacco warehouse in Subic Freeport making the said area a regional hub for tobacco. Enditem
