A Catholic bishop today expressed support for moves in the Philippine Congress to increase taxes on cigarettes and alcoholic drinks.

Bishop Deogracias Iniguez of Kalookan said two new bills filed at the House of Representatives seeking to increase "sin taxes" will help curb smoking and alcohol abuse.
"There is nothing morally against it," Bishop Iniguez declared, adding that other countries impose higher taxes on cigarettes and alcoholic drinks.

The Ways and Means Committee of the House opened a series of hearings this week on bills filed by Congressman Erico Aumentado of Bohol in a bid to raise funds for the government’s health and education programs.

Should the bill on "sin taxes” be passed by Congress, the government is expected to generate billions of pesos annually for its national health insurance program and the Education Department’s information and communications technology projects. The proposed bills are expected to take effect Jan. 1, 2012.

An estimated 17.3 million of about 90 million Filipinos are smokers, according to the Philippine Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS). Respondents were as young as 15 years old and at least 13.8 million reported smoking daily.

Meanwhile, The National Tobacco Administration has been opposing the bills, saying higher prices of cigarettes will only decrease the demand for tobacco, consequently affecting two million Filipinos who thrive on tobacco farming.

In a related report, the Department of Health revealed that Filipinos were the heaviest drinkers of alcoholic beverages in Southeast Asia.

Citing studies conducted by Synovate, a global market research group, the Health Department noted that 11 percent of the population aged 15 to 74 drink alcoholic beverages at an average rate of about four or more days in a week. Twenty four percent of Filipinos aged 15 to 19 years old were also found to be regular drinkers.

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