Tobacco towns await share in P10.69-B tax

By Mar T. Supnad

SANTIAGO, Ilocos Sur — Recipients of the P10.69-billion tobacco excise tax fund set to be released by the Department of Budget and Management, (DBM); are already anxious of getting their share, with Candon City receiving the biggest amount at P356.8 million and this town having laid out how its P232.86-million share will be allocated.

Last week, the DBM issued a statement that it will release soon total funds amounting to a whopping P10.69 billion from the proceeds of the Sin Tax Reform Law, RA 10351; in 2013, as mandated in the original law, R.A. 7171, authored by Sen. Franklin Drilon in the Senate and by then rep. Luis “Chavit” Singson in the House of Representatives.

“These funds will enable LGUs to reach out to tobacco farmers and help them increase their productivity and income, especially now that the country’s agricultural sector is suffering from the El Niño phenomenon,” Drilon, a re-electionist senatorial candidate of the Liberal Party, said in a statement.

Other tobacco-producing towns that will be top recipients of the sin tax collections include Cabugao, with a share of P331,288,034; Narvacan, P276,896,635; Sta. Cruz, P264,492,112; San Juan, P239,652,663; Sinait, P196,236,833; Magsingal, P183,072,230; in Ilocos Sur, Balaoan, P320,426,556; in La Union, and Batac, P178,024,130; in Ilocos Norte, among others

In Cagayan province, the towns of Quirino and Malig will get P29.6 million and P14.9 million, respectively.

This town, which is one of the top tobacco producers, will receive P232,386,228.00 as its share and Mayor Josefino Miranda has his game plan for the fund laid out.

“I will use the funds for the immediate needs of tobacco farmers such as fertilizers, small water impounding projects, widening of San Jose road, among others,” Miranda said.

The tobacco excise tax share of all the tobacco-producing provinces as mandated by Republic Act 8240, Burley and Native tobacco excise tax law; and RA 7171, Virginia tobacco fund law; amounted only to P5.84 billion in 2012, P3.83 billion in 2011, and P5.49 billion in 2010, said  Drilon.

The RA 7171 has elevated Ilocos Sur from a poor province into a first-class province, said Singson who has seen the development of public infrastructure in towns and barangays.

Drilon said that the P10.69-billion allotment will go a long way in alleviating “the conditions of tobacco farmers and their families, who are often among the nation’s poorest.”