Cigarette smugglers must be thrilled over four tax bills filed in the House of Representatives.

These bills seek to change the excise tax on liquor and tobacco products. Yes, all four of them!

From what I heard, the main target of the bills is the tobacco sector. They propose to raise the excise tax on cigarettes, resulting in tax rates ranging from P2.75 to P65.15 per pack.

The present tax structure has four tiers, and the tax rates depend on the price of the cigarette. The higher the price, the higher is the tax rate.

Three of the four bills want to maintain the tiered tax rates, albeit, at higher levels.

From out of the blue, however, in a rather extreme swing in its thinking on taxation, the Department of Finance (DoF) is proposing a single — just one — rate for all kinds of cigarettes at P14 per pack.

Nobody can say as yet whether or not the DoF just plucked the figure from the air.

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A lot of people surely want this country to raise the tax rates on cigarettes to the point of being punitive.

Hopefully, expensive cigarettes will discourage people from smoking. We all know that smoking cigarettes can kill.

Still, that is not really the intention of the DoF and the congressmen in proposing new tax rates.

Theirs is to increase government revenue from liquor and tobacco products. Meaning, they still want people to smoke so that the government can collect more taxes. They may be on the right track after all. Economists say the demand for cigarettes and liquor is inelastic. Meaning, for the sake of the action stars in the Senate, no matter how high the government raises the taxes, a lot of people will still drink and smoke.

History tells us that when the government raised the tax rates on cigarettes, smuggling became attractive. Well, the smugglers were selling tax-free products, right?

Studies show that this country forgoes at least P10 billion a year in taxes on imported cigarettes.

In fact, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has been begging the Bureau of Customs (BoC) for help to plug the leakage, such as through the BoC providing information to the BIR.

The BoC has refused to cooperate all these years.

And with those bills in the House threatening to raise the tax rates on cigarettes some more, which means smuggling will become even more profitable, the smugglers must be jumping for joy.

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Reports say the Lopez family is selling a good part of its stake in the country’s biggest power distributor, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

The family is selling its holdings to the publicly listed Pilipino Telephone Corp. , or Piltel, which is a subsidiary of the publicly listed Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) which, in turn, is under the stewardship of the famous Manuel V. Pangilinan, who is simply known as “MVP” in the basketball scene.

Some analysts in the stock market have been badmouthing the move of the Lopezes. Well, Meralco has been theirs for the longest time.

But foreign investment firms — i.e., Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank — actually saw good signs in the sale.

For one, the Lopez family could fetch a good price of P90 per share for its Meralco holdings — thanks to all the talk of a boardroom war in the company.

Before the war erupted between the state-run pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Lopez family last year, Meralco shares were doing at less than P50 per.

Nobody would even consider Meralco as a “buy” issue at that time.

And so those foreign analysts are saying that, with a good premium on Meralco, it’s good for the Lopez family to sell its holdings.

For one, the family can retire a good portion of the loans of its debt-heavy holding firm First Holdings, and it can even have some funds left for investments in new power plants under the wings of its shining star, First Gen Corp. .

Foreign investment firms believe the Lopez family can still provide the swing vote in the battle for control of Meralco between MVP and the beverage and food group San Miguel Corp.

Unless, of course, Piltel buys out San Miguel, or San Miguel buys out Piltel.

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The Philippines made it again to the Guinness Book of World Records for staging the world’s biggest march against drugs.

Two Saturdays ago — in case you were wondering about that monstrous traffic — a million people marched on Roxas Boulevard as part of the “Batang Iwas Droga” movement.

It currently has some 600,000 members in the metropolis and surrounding towns, with ages between six and 12 years.

And they all brought their mothers or fathers to the anti-drugs march. All in all, that’s more than a million marchers.

Yet, unlike in other mass gatherings, the anti-drugs movement marchers brought their own food and water. The only freebie was the donation from the Light Rail Transit for free rides.

Previous rallies against this cute administration, all asking Gloriaetta to resign, gathered less than 20,000 participants.

Which perhaps tells us that, with a right advocacy, the Filipino will take part in mass movements. Already, it is estimated that 10 million are drug victims in this country. And still counting!

But what group could gather such a huge crowd? From what I heard, it was a certain Bida Foundation. Guess who is behind it! It’s Efraim Genuino, chairman of the government gaming firm Pagcor.

Well, the man has a little background in mass movements. He was a longtime ally of Gloriaetta in all her political campaigns, starting as senatorial candidate all the way to the presidency.

But does Genuino have plans for 2010? Rumor has it that he is running for president. Will that gigantic march catapult him to the list of serious contenders?