Phillipines: Tobacco Growers Hit Groups Accepting Foreign Grants 'to Lobby' vs Industry

Source from:  interaksyon.com 10/18/2012

Tobacco growers and workers assailed government and non-government organizations and health advocates for accepting foreign grants and allegedly allowing international donors to influence local policies. The Philippine Tobacco Growers Association (PTGA) said the move to increase taxes from sin products would result in huge job cuts in the industry.

"We will lose our source of livelihood if excessive tax increases will be put in place. We are appealing to our lawmakers to consider our plight and not let themselves be influenced by NGOs who accept foreign money to lobby against the industry," PTGA president Saturnino Distor said in a statement released on Wednesday. Earlier, Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile said that the millions of dollars poured into the Philippines by a U.S.-based anti-smoking program "shows that there is an effort by foreigners to influence the internal policies of the country." Sen. Ralph Recto, in his privilege speech last Monday, mentioned about the anti-tobacco groups that "got lobby money from the foundation funded by Mayor Bloomberg of New York City." Recto recently resigned as chairman of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means after drawing flak for his allegedly watered-down version of the Sin Tax bill, which would only generate P15 billion in revenues. His critics insinuated that lobby money from industry players had kept him from raising to P60 billion the projected tax revenues that would be derived from sin products. Recto denied the insinuations. The foundation Recto was referring to in his speech is the Bloomberg Initiative, a global action to reduce tobacco use in low and middle-income countries that philanthropist and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg launched in 2006 with a $125 million fund, extended in 2008 with a new commitment of $250 million. The four major objectives of the Bloomberg Initiative are: 1. To refine and optimize tobacco control programs to help smokers stop using tobacco and to prevent children from starting. 2. To support public sector efforts to pass and enforce key laws and implement effective policies, including taxing cigarettes, preventing smuggling, altering the image of tobacco and protecting workers from exposure to secondhand smoke. 3. To support advocates' efforts to educate communities about the harms of tobacco and to enhance tobacco control activities that work towards a tobacco-free world. 4. To develop a rigorous system to monitor the status of global tobacco use Since 2007, 10 government and non-government organizations in the Philippines received grants from the Bloomberg Foundation worth $4.91 million. (roughly P196 million). The organizations that received grants from the Initiative are the following: ·Action for Economic Reforms ·Add+Vantage Community Team Services Inc. (ACTS. Inc) ·CENTER FOR DEVELOPMENT-METRO MANILA ·Department of Health National Center for Health Promotion ·Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines ·Health Policy Development and Planning Bureau, Department of Health ·HealthJustice Foundation ·Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) ·New Vois Association of the Phils. Inc. ·University of the Philippines College of Law Development Foundation Sen. Franklin Drilon countered Recto and said that "the grants are not lobby money." "They are grants to these NGOs including the UP College of Law. That is not lobby money. Those are grant because these NGOs are advocates of a cause which Bloomberg believes in. So it is not lobby money," said Drilon. Also, Sen. Panfilo Lacson didn't think that the funds were lobby money and thus he didn't see any need for the Senate to conduct an inquiry into the matter. "It doesn't merit [an investigation] Nasa website naman 'yan. Kung lobby ilalagay mo sa website? [It's on the website. If it is lobby money, will you upload that on the website?," said Lacson. But National Federation of Labor Unions president Hilario Punzalan said it would be unfair and improper for government officials to accept money from a foreign lobby group and let it interfere with national policy, especially tax, as it imposes added burden on the people. "It is difficult to accept Secretaries [Enrique] Ona and [Cesar] Purisima's position that they are protecting our welfare by asking for higher taxes on cigarette products. What will happen is that many in our ranks will be laid off. By accepting foreign money, they allowed a foreign entity to meddle with the crafting of our tax laws," Punzalan said. Yearly, 87,600 or about 10 Filipinos hourly die from smoking-related diseases and that cigerette smoking costs an estimated P218 to P416 billion in annual health care expenses and productivity losses, according to the Department of Health. Based on other studies including the 2009 Philippine Global Adult Tobacco Survey, over 17 million of the country's population aged 15 and above currently smoke an average of 10.7 sticks of cigarettes a day. Enditem