MANILA —New evidence from a survey of Filipino adults who smoke suggests that a 23% increase on cigarette taxes, from ₱69.46 to ₱90.00, and requiring that cigarette packs carry larger health warning labels (HWLs) are likely to motivate more people to consider quitting.
The findings appear in peerreviewed research published this week in the journal, Tobacco Induced Diseases. Raising the price of cigarette packs through taxes and expanding the size of health warning labels on cigarette packaging (which display graphic images of the dire health impacts of smoking) are two of the most effective ways to reduce tobacco use, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
These prevention measures are also requirements of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which the Philippines ratified in 2005.
“If the excise tax on cigarettes were increased to ₱90.00 per pack—a 23% increase from its current rate— roughly 5.5 million more Filipinos who smoke might consider quitting,” estimated Lauren Czaplicki, PhD, lead author and associate scientist at the Institute for Global Tobacco Control (IGTC) at the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health. “The price of a pack of cigarettes and what it looks like both inform purchasing decisions, so raising taxes and making graphic warnings large, bold, and difficult to ignore raise the chance that someone will stop smoking or, even better, never start—that’s what makes these two measures so effective at deterring smoking and encouraging people to quit, especially when deployed in tandem.”
Currently in the Philippines, taxes represent only 51% of the price of pack of cigarettes, even as the excise tax rate increases by 5% every year, beginning in 2024, as mandated by Republic Act (RA) No. 11467.
Implemented in 2016, RA No. 10643 requires graphic warning labels printed on cigarette packs covering 50% of the front and back principal display surfaces and 30% of the sides.
More than 13 million Filipinos smoke cigarettes, the country’s most prevalent form of tobacco use. While rates of cigarette smoking have decreased over time, from 27.0% in 2009 to 17.4% in 2021, tobacco use in the Philippines remains among the highest in the Western Pacific, causing nearly 100,000 preventablendeaths among Filipinos every year.
“The Filipinos surveyed are essentially saying, ‘Taxes should be raised to help me stop smoking,’ and ‘Larger health warnings will discourage me from smoking,’ so tobacco consumers themselves are telling Philippine policymakers how to help them quit smoking,” said Dr. Ulysses Dorotheo, executive director of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA).
“Higher prices and much larger pictorial warning images make cigarettes less appealing and can strengthen the resolve to stop smoking and live longer, healthier and free of smoking.”
For their study, the researchers surveyed 886 adults who smoke and who resided in the three primary regions of the Philippines (Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao). Each study participant was shown images of cigarette packs that varied by price (based on the excise tax at the time of the survey, in 2023), warning label size and branding, and flavor (unflavored tobacco or menthol). Participants were then asked to select which pack would make them most consider quitting. The results—where higher prices through taxation and larger warning labels with graphic images covering 85% of the pack prompted respondents to say they would start thinking about quitting—correlate with a similar study in Vietnam and underscore the importance of embracing FCTC-aligned policies.
“Government must be made aware of this evidence showing that a substantial number of people who smoke would quit if the tobacco tax rates would increase by 23%, from the current Php69.46 to Php90.00,” said Filomeno Sta. Ana III, executive director of Action for Economic Reforms (AER). “In other words, creating a financial barrier makes quitting easier while making it harder for youth to purchase and consume harmful products—so it’s sound policy for the government to continue imposing higher taxes to make cigarettes less affordable.”
About the Institute of Global Tobacco Control
Established in 1998, the Institute for Global Tobacco Control (publichealth.jhu.edu/igtc) has informed tobacco control measures in countries around the world for more than 25 years. As part of the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, located in Baltimore, Maryland (U.S.), the institute is a partner in the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Us and a Collaborating Centre of the World Health Organization, guided by a mission to prevent death and disease from tobacco products by generating evidence to support tobacco interventions. This work was supported with funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Us.
