Top Takeaways:
- Reports from the Philippines indicate that tobacco excise-tax shares for 2023–2025 remain unreleased despite RA 7171’s earmarking rules.
- Chavit Singson urged the release of the funds within 30 days and cited the 2026 budget signing as a pressure point.
- RA 7171 directs the DBM to release tobacco excise shares to for farmer support and development initiatives.
Billions of pesos in tobacco excise tax shares earmarked for tobacco-growing provinces in the Philippines from 2023 through 2025 remain unreleased, prompting renewed pressure from industry leaders and farmers in Northern Luzon to release the funds required under Republic Act (RA) 7171.
RA 7171 requires that a portion of excise taxes on locally manufactured Virginia-type cigarettes be set aside for tobacco-producing provinces and their municipalities to support development and farmer assistance programs. The law directs the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to retain these funds and release them to eligible local government units (LGUs) as shares of tobacco excise collections.
Former Ilocos Sur governor Luis “Chavit” Singson, who authored RA 7171, said the excise-tax shares from the past three years have not been remitted despite the signing of the ₱6.793 trillion (US$880 million) national budget for 2026. He warned that the delay has disrupted local programs and projects in tobacco-producing communities.
Singson urged the national government to release the funds within 30 days and said he hoped the appointment of Acting Budget Secretary Rolando Toledo would help address the bottlenecks behind the delayed releases.
Media reports said stakeholders in the Ilocos region — a major tobacco-producing area — have linked the delayed releases to mounting financial pressure on growers and LGUs’ inability to fund support programs meant to strengthen farmer self-reliance and local development.
The dispute arises as DBM documentation continues to outline how tobacco excise shares are allocated and distributed, including allocations based on collection years (for example, FY 2025 allocations based on FY 2023 collections).
