Tobacco farmers: Misuse of excise tax funds not limited to Ilocos Norte
June 20, 2017 | 6:50am
Farmers' groups have been asking the National Tobacco Administration to audit all projects paid for with tobacco excise tax funds. File photo
ILOCOS SUR, Philippines — Tobacco farmers are asking the Duterte administration to send Ilocos Norte officials who misused tobacco excise taxes to jail.
Also claiming tobacco excise taxes fund misuse have not been confined only in Ilocos Norte, but all tobacco-producing provinces in the Ilocos region, organized farmers of the Solidarity of Peasants Against Exploitation (STOP Exploitation) and the Alyansa dagti Mannalon ti Ilocos Norte (Peasant Alliance in Ilocos Norte or AMIN) in a joint statement said, “misuse and corruption of the RA 7171 funds is not limited to Ilocos Norte.”
Zaldy Alfiler, secretary general of STOP Exploitation and Antonio Pugyao, AMIN secretary general both said, “since its implementation in 1992, politicians in Ilocos region and other Virginia tobacco-producing provinces mainly utilized the funds for the furtherance of their political ambitions, leaving only crumbs for the farmers.”
These farmers’ groups had earlier asked the National Tobacco Administration for a full audit of billions of funds released to all local government units in tobacco-producing regions .
"(We) are demanding the appropriate use of the funds from RA 7171," tobacco farmers said, explaining, “this is part of the justice that the farmers want to attain.”
Alfiler and Pugyao said: “Clearly, corrupt officials pocket large sums of people’s money denying farmers of their right to the excise taxes.”
House probe on tobacco taxes
Tobacco farmers of Ilocos Norte have always hoped that they would benefit from the funds from RA 7171 but officials allot the bulk of these for their own whims, Pugyao of the Ilocos Norte farmers’ group claimed, citing, “minicabs, mini trucks and buses procured by the provincial government never uplifted the well-being of the tobacco farmers.”
The House of Representatives is holding hearings on allegations that Ilocos Norte officials, including Gov. Imee Marcos, misused the tobacco excise tax funds.
Pugyao said “the provincial government of Ilocos Norte violated the implementing rules and regulations of RA 7171 when it purchased vehicles using the excise taxes from tobacco.”
Pugyao urged the six provincial officials detained by the House of Representatives since May 29 “to divulge the full extent of the misuse and abuse of the excise tax funds instead of withholding crucial information and acting as scapegoats for Governor Marcos.”
Joseph Cadiz, legal counsel for Gov. Marcos has called the allegations “premature politicking."
"These are irresponsible conclusions," he said.
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