Preliminary findings from the 2024 Global Youth Tobacco Survey put current tobacco use among Filipino youth at 16.2%, up from 12.5% in 2019. E-cigarette use stood at 26.7% in 2024. The increase is clear.
House Ways and Means Committee chairperson Miro Quimbo also cited Food and Nutrition Research Institute data. It reported that the number of youth smokers doubled to 1 million in 2023 from 500,000 in 2021. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says youth nicotine use is a public-health concern. The Philippine survey figures should still be read on their own terms.
The debate is part of ProGRESS, or Promoting Growth, Revenue, and Equity Towards Socio-Economic Sustainability. The tax package has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. It combines personal income tax relief with proposed excise measures to offset some revenue losses, including taxes on products linked to health and social costs.
The proposed uniform rate is P72.93, but the current rates use different units: P60.20 per milliliter for salt nicotine, P69.46 per 10 milliliters for freebase liquid, and P37.63 per 20-stick heated-tobacco pack. Those units are not directly interchangeable, so the rate comparison needs to be read alongside each product's tax basis.
Youth use is rising in the data Quimbo cited
The Department of Finance proposal would set a uniform P72.93 rate across cigarettes, vapor products and heated tobacco products. It would apply the relevant unit, whether per pack, milliliter or 10 milliliters. Annual increases of 5% would start in 2028.
Current rates differ: P60.20 per milliliter for salt nicotine, P69.46 per 10 milliliters for freebase e-liquid and P37.63 per pack of 20 heated-tobacco sticks. The units matter. A rate per milliliter cannot be compared at face value with one per pack, much like serving sizes on a Nutrition Facts panel. The tax design, not the headline figure alone, determines which comparisons make sense.
Claims Check: The FDA identifies nicotine as highly addictive and notes that youth are especially vulnerable to its effects. That context supports treating youth access as a serious policy concern, but it does not by itself establish which proposed tax rate will reduce use or prevent illicit sales; those outcomes require evidence after implementation.
The rates carry trade-offs
Quimbo warned that rates set too low could make nicotine products more accessible, particularly to young people. But rates set too steeply, he said, could encourage illicit trade and harm legitimate industries and tobacco-growing communities. They could also weaken government revenue alongside public-health goals. The committee must weigh these risks together, not treat tax levels as a simple choice between higher collections and lower consumption.
JTI has backed a unified e-cigarette tax. The company says a common rate could reduce technical smuggling and misdeclaration in the e-liquid supply chain. It has also called for stronger action against illicit tobacco trade. These are industry positions, not proof that a uniform rate alone will solve enforcement problems. The effects would depend on compliance, monitoring and how the tax applies across products.
The WHO review of the Philippines' earlier tobacco tax reforms offers historical context. It reported that the real price of the country's most-sold cigarette brand rose 638% from 2008 to 2024. Smoking prevalence fell by about one-third from 2010 to 2025. WHO also noted a link between tobacco-tax revenue and the expansion of universal health coverage. Those results cover a longer reform period. They do not guarantee that proposed rates for different nicotine products will have the same effects.
For readers checking a product label, the question is not just whether a rate looks high or low. It is what the tax covers, which unit applies and what change the policy is meant to bring. The committee must set out those choices clearly. Then it must measure whether the plan protects young people without worsening illicit trade or undermining public revenue.
