Alhambra Cigar and my lola

As i was surfing the internet on photos of Alhambra cigarettes, I saw the above photo by a blogger. The author said that the photo reminds  him of  his  late mom and her sisters who smoke “Ms. Philippines,” a brand of local tobacco. It used to be known as  Alhambra.

I agree with him that it is amazing to see old women, particularly   women from the provinces , having  the capability of oddly smoking this cigar with the lighted end inside their mouth.

 This photo likewise reminds me of  my lola who died in the early 80s. I think I asked her if her mouth serves as an ashtray. My lola said that the burning sensation in her mouth adds thrill in the rather mundane act of smoking. It is a skill. With the lit cigar in her mouth, my lola could even roll her tongue and still talk at length only to stop to spit the ash from her mouth.

An urband legend: this practice started during the war. When the Japanese came to the philippines, many people went into hiding. And the only way the people could smoke and not give out their hiding places was to put the lighted end of the cigarette in their mouth! Thus was born a tradition that is now slowly fading into oblivion.

These are more commonly called as the Regaliz type of cigarettes which are wrapped in dark brown (commonly referred black) sweetened paper imported form France and are lengthy (120 mm long).  The cigarettes are more popularly sold under the following brands: La Campana Largos, Ms. Philippines Fat, Ms. Philippines Thin, La Flor de Filipinas Fat, La Flor de Filipinas Thin, Marka Niyog Fat, Marka Niyog Thin, Malaya Largos, La Dicha, and La Flor de Luzon. The cigar-blended cigarettes are hand-packed by women factory workers called "Kahistas" in thirty (30) sticks per pack. The packing process is done by the scoop of hand by these trained "Kahistas" who used their hand as mold in bundling the sticks in 30's and package them in a five angled pack in swift and continuous motion.
 

It was the Filipinos that have made a success of one of the country’s oldest continuous industries, that of tobacco cultivation. As it was in many Spanish colonies of the 16th to 19th centuries, tobacco was introduced in the Philippines from the New World early on. It was Magellan, in fact, who first brought tobacco to the islands, from his explorations in the Caribbean. The leaf quickly achieved popularity with the local populace, gaining entrance even to areas that the Spanish were unable to penetrate, most notably the largely Islamic island of Mindanao (whose leader at the time, Lapu-Lapu, expressed his opinion of the Spanish by relieving the itinerant Magellan of the rest of his life). And, like in other Spanish colonies, tobacco knowledge and skill passed easily through the Philippines as part of the international trade routes that the islands anchored.

My lola Maria Reyes y Santos

Again, I miss my lola Maria. My recollections of Lola Maria includes the following (a).the Alhambra cigar which she smoked “baligtad” the lighted side was inside her mouth (b) making sampaguita necklaces from her garden (c) she will measure our feet by drawing a sketch of the feet’s outline for our sandals. I belong to the more than 40 “apos’ or grandchildren of Damaso and Maria Reyes. I never met my lolo who died before I was born but his absence was greatly compensated by the love and caring that Lola Maria has given to her grandchildren. Their children (Mario, Bert, Odol, Elsa, Julieta, Linda, Malou, Elvie, Mel, and Tita) followed the proverbial phrase “ go and multiply” thus out we came, the 40 plus grandchildren.  We were told that she was really pretty during her younger years. She was even crowned as “Miss Baliwag.” 

The Bureau of Internal Revenues (BIR) passed Revenue Regulations 12-2004 in December 28, 2004 imposing new specific  taxes on per pack of  several tobacco products, among them  Miss Philippines (Mataba and Payat) under the hand packed locally manufactured cigarrrettes. The specific taxes per pack  progresses every two years, to wit P2.00 in 2005, P2.23 in 2007, P2.47 in 2009, P2.72 in 2011.This scheme was implemented by virtue of R.A. 9334, otherwise known as the "Sin Tax" law that came into law in January 2005. Cigarettes are taxed based on the brand’s retail price.

Malacañang announced that it aimed to generate P60 billion from a proposed bill restructuring the excise tax on alcohol and tobacco products. Mr. Aquino said the revenues from the modified excise tax would be earmarked for universal healthcare. He added that its ultimate goal was to reduce the consumption of alcohol and tobacco.


The Department of Finance (DOF) has estimated that at least P19.5 billion has been lost in revenues from 2006 to 2010 due to cigarette consumption that has merely downshifted from higher to lower-priced brands — a trend which the current multi-tiered system has encouraged.