Tobacco production in the Philippines

First introduced in 1592, tobacco continues to dominate the social, political, and economic life in the Philippine regions where it is grown.

With a climate similar to the Vuelta Abajo region in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, the crop began to flourish and a new source of income was introduced to Spain.

The monopoly did not only force the people, especially those from the north and Cagayan, to grow tobacco but compelled them to produce more than what their piece of land could yield.

The decade after the recognition of Philippine independence marked a return of the tobacco industry to economic prominence in the Ilocos region.

[5][6] The following year, La Union Congressman Manuel T. Cases filed a bill to "limit the importation of foreign leaf tobacco," which was eventually signed by President Elpidio Quirino as Republic Act 698.