Figures Don’t Lie: The Philippines is the Most Alcoholic Country with Plenty of Drunkards

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Don’t let Wikipedia fool you when you don’t see the Philippines on its lists of most alcoholic countries like Estonia, Austria, and France. The list is outdated and data from the Philippines is always insufficient. People who drink Lambanog and Tuba would certainly disagree with the list.

Some beverage and liquor websites list the Philippines but is not always on top ten. Well, figures don’t lie.

Let’s examine below.

In the 2012 lists of top selling beers released by Bizjournal.com, San Miguel Beer was not included but if we check the figures, SMB should have been listed at number five.  San Miguel Corporation reported 79.1B pesos in sales, or equivalent to $1,626,657,691. If we are to insert SMB in the list released by Bizjournal.com, the list should have been  in the following order.

1. Bud Light $5,989,201,000 (USA)
2. Coors Light $2,286,144,00 (USA)
3. Budweiser $2,175,318,000 (USA)
4. Miller Light $1,933,147,000 (USA)
5. San Miguel Beer Brands $1,626,657,691 (Philippines)
6. Natural Light $1,205,474,000 (USA)

So, out of six beer brands, SMB stands number five and the rest are from US brewers.  Americans really love beers. Here in the Philippines, people from countryside and outside Metro Manila are not really fond of drinking beers because of its higher cost than other liquor type like gin, brandy, rum, and whiskey. Being number five on the list is still visible evidence that many Filipinos are alcoholics.

Going harder, San Miguel’s Ginebra knocked everything out in Gin category. According to Drinklist.com,  Ginebra San Miguel sold 23.8 million 9-litre cases in 2013 alone. The second best selling from England (Gordon’s Gin) sold only 3.9m cases. Looking at the disparity, there is no need to discuss other brands in gin category. Ginebra does it all.

How about the brandy category?

The dominating force of Emperador Brandy is well seen and recognized around the world.  Since 2012, Emperador Brandy has been the best selling brandy around the world, but 98% of its sales come from local market – of course the drunkard Filipinos (especially the Empi Light).

Let’s take a look at the list below on how other brands fare against our own.

1. Emperador (31m 9-litre cases) Philippines
2. McDowell’s No.1 (10.9m) India
3. Gran Matador (7.8m) Philippines
4. Mansion House Brandy (5.3m) India
5. Hennessy (5.2m) France
6. Honey Bee (5.0m) USA
7. E&J Gallo (4.0m) USA
8. Old Admiral (3.5m) India
9. Dreher (3.3m) Hungary
10. Martell (2.0m) France

Gran Matador, although not as popular as five to seven years ago is still on top three. Filipinos are really fond of drinking. This is one of the reasons why only the brewers are getting richer and the alcoholics are getting poorer.

Any sane Filipino should not be proud of the list above anyway. The list only proves that Filipinos are heavy drinkers, without even including the thousands of liters of Tuba and Lambanog being produced in Quezon province, Visayas, and Mindanao daily.

Another thing that makes Filipinos more alcoholics is that, nobody would drink alone.  You cannot call it “inuman”, or “barikan (in Batangas)” if you are alone. Having more drinking comrades means more liquor to drink, and more money to spend.

See Also: Emperador is the World’s Best Selling Brandy

/Fanny Jalacjac/ Assisted Press Manila

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