The Department of Health (DOH) is seeking to impose sin taxes on sweetened beverages and junk foods to address the increasing obesity or overweight amongst Filipinos.

In a media briefing on Friday, Sept. 10, DOH officer-in-charge (OIC) Maria Rosario Vergeire said statistics on obesity showed a sustained increase from 31 percent in 2015 to 37 percent in 2018.

The DOH OIC stressed that obesity is already a “public health concern“.

“This sin tax is part of our strategy for us to be able to regulate and control these different lifestyle risk factors. Alam natin ngayon, ang lifestyle risks factors ay mataas. Nandyan ang sigarilyo, alcohol at ngayon dinadagdag natin ang sweet and beverages at junk food,“ she said.

“Alam nating lahat na ang sweetened beverages at junk food can contribute to obesity and overweight. These contributing factors become lifestyle-related factors,“ Vergeire added.

Citing a study, she said when children start to eat junk foods, they grow up obese and become at high risk for non-communicable diseases.

She asserted that it has been proven that sin taxes helps control lifestyle-related risk factors.

“Noong 2012, noong nilabas ang sin tax law at naipatupad ito, ang numbers of smokers then was about 30 percent of the population. Noong huling Global Adult Tobacco survey, bumaba ito sa 24 percent,“ Vergeire shared.

She added that data from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) – Food and Nutrition Research Institute Expanded Nutrition survey showed that smoking prevalence has declined from 31 percent in 2008 to 20 percent in 2019.

The health department is still studying the amount of tax to levied on sweetened drinks and junk foods, Vergeire said.

She said sin taxes from alcohol, tobacco, and vape are DOH’s source of funds.

Vergeire disclosed that 59 percent or Php 155 billion of the department’s budget for 2022 came from sin taxes.

“So, ganito po ‘yung gusto nating makita in the coming years that these sin taxes can fund the different interventions that we do to provide Universal Health Care for everybody,“ she said.