Gin in Plastic Sachets, Blood on the Asphalt: Manila’s Deadly Thirst

Dr. Domingo’s Unwavering Commitment (and Unfunded Mandate)

By Louis ‘Barok‘ C. Biraogo — November 4, 2025

The PowerPoint Prophets vs. The Sari-Sari Slaughterhouse

In the fluorescent glow of a Manila conference room, Dr. Albert Domingo—Department of Health (DOH) Assistant Secretary, earnest face framed by a government badge—stands before a slide titled “Whole-of-Society Approach.” He speaks of preventive health, cross-sectoral collaboration, evidence-based policymaking. The audience nods: University of the Philippines Manila (UP Manila) professors, civil-society warriors, a lone partylist congressman clutching a press release. They issue a Call to Action.

Three blocks away, a 14-year-old buys a plastic sachet of Emperador gin for 25 pesos from a sari-sari store that doubles as a karaoke bar. The clerk doesn’t ask for ID. The boy drinks it in one go, chases it with Red Horse, and staggers into traffic. Somewhere, a mother will bury a son. Somewhere else, a father will beat his wife. And somewhere in Malacañang, a lobbyist from San Miguel pours a congressman a glass of something expensive and whispers, “Jobs, culture, freedom.”

This is the Philippines’ alcohol problem: not a vice, but a plague we’ve monetized.

**PHP 1.1 Trillion in Blood Money: The Real Cost of ‘Culture’**

Cassandras in Lab Coats: The Coalition That Sees the End Coming

Let us salute the ASAB CoP—the Alcohol, Substances, and Addictive Behaviors Community of Practice under UP Manila’s National Institutes of Health (NIH)—alongside the DOH, doctors, and youth advocates who gathered on October 29, 2025, to demand the WHO SAFER package: tax the poison, restrict its sale, ban its seduction, enforce the roads, treat the addicted.

They are not naïve. They know the enemy: a PHP 1.1 trillion annual hemorrhage in healthcare, lost productivity, and shattered families. They know that 47 Filipinos die every day from alcohol-attributable causes—more than murder, more than dengue. They know that one in three drinkers binges, that youth exposed to alcohol ads are twice as likely to get drunk, that the legal drinking age of 18 is a joke enforced only on paper.

And at the center stands Dr. Albert Domingo, the government’s designated conscience. He speaks of unwavering commitment. He moderates fireside chats. He poses with Rep. Nathaniel M. Oducado, who declares, “Sound public health policies depend on sound legislation.”

But here’s the question: Is Dr. Domingo’s sincerity matched by the political will of his masters, or is he a good man destined to be ground down by the machine—like every other DOH official who dared challenge a vice industry with deeper pockets than the national treasury?

The Sacred Cow We Feed with Blood and Bile

We cluck our tongues at the drunkard in the gutter, but we celebrate the corporation that addicts him and the government that refuses to rein it in. Alcohol is not just a drink—it is a cultural sacrament, a political lubricant, a livelihood for the poor. We toast at weddings, drown sorrows at wakes, and let barangay captains sell Tanduay under the table. We allow billboards of smiling celebrities to beam down on schoolchildren. We let sari-sari stores peddle gin in plastic sachets cheaper than water.

And the cost? PHP 1.1 trillion. That’s not a statistic. That’s:

A widow’s pension denied
A child’s textbook unfunded
A hospital bed unoccupied because the drunk-driver victim never made it

That’s domestic violence in one in four homes. That’s a generation of livers cirrhosed before 40. That’s a nation that spends more treating wreckage than preventing it.

The Grand Farce of “Whole-of-Society” (Minus the Society)

The coalition laments the lack of stronger legislation, implementation, and cross-sectoral coordination. Translation: we have conferences, not laws. We have PowerPoints, not penalties. We have Dr. Domingo’s unwavering commitment—but no budget, no enforcement, no spine.

Contrast the coalition’s shoestring operation with the alcohol industry’s war chest. San Miguel doesn’t just brew beer—it brews influence. It funds campaigns. It sponsors sports. It lobbies against tax hikes with the same fervor it uses to market Red Horse to teenagers. The DOH begs for crumbs; the industry dines at the table.

And so we get endless cycles: symposia, calls to action, fireside chats, press releases. The coalition has the evidence. What it lacks is a legislative crowbar strong enough to pry politicians from the industry’s embrace.

Freedom to Drink vs. Freedom to Live: A Demolition in Three Acts

Let us be fair. The industry has arguments.

Industry Claim	Reality Check
“Jobs!”	The PHP 1.1 trillion in social costs could fund 100,000 healthcare workers or 50,000 teachers. The “economic contribution” is a rounding error.
“Freedom!”	The freedom to drink ends where the drunk driver’s car hits a child. Freedom to market gin to minors is not freedom—it is predation.
“Culture!”	We do not ban lechon because some overeat. We ban commercial exploitation of culture. Let lambanog flow at fiestas—but not in plastic sachets sold to 12-year-olds.

The WHO SAFER package is not radical. It is common sense. It works everywhere it’s tried. It will work here—if we let it.

Prognosis: Another Well-Meaning Corpse in the Morgue of Good Intentions?

Timeline	Likelihood of Success	Why
Short term (6–18 months)	30–45% for modest wins	Local pilots, tax tweaks, a few billboards down. Industry will fight every inch.
Medium term (1–3 years)	40–60% for piecemeal reform	If coalition sustains pressure and finds a congressional champion.
Long term (3–6+ years)	50–70% conditional	Only if industry influence is neutered via transparency laws and public financing.

This is not a battle of data. It is a battle of power. And history is not kind to public health Davids facing corporate Goliaths.

Stop Talking. Start Bleeding the Beast.

Stop hosting symposia and start passing laws. No more fireside chats. Draft the bill. File it. Whip the votes.
Tax alcohol until it squeals—and use every peso to fund the healthcare system it clogs. Index taxes to inflation. Introduce minimum unit pricing for cheap gin.
Give Dr. Domingo and his colleagues real power—or stop pretending this is a priority. Fund enforcement. Empower local government units (LGUs). Prosecute violations.
Treat the alcohol industry like the tobacco industry: as a merchant of death with no seat at the policy table. Ban their lobbying. Disclose their donations. Sue them when they target children.

Dr. Domingo, the ball is in your court.
Will you be the bureaucrat who finally says enough—or the one who presides over another decade of conferences while the body count rises?

The gin is flowing.
The children are watching.
The clock is ticking.