Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Caesar Dulay did the “right thing” in ordering an investigation into the alleged use by certain tobacco manufacturers of fake tax stamps on their cigarette packs.

Dominguez backed this BIR move as he ordered the BIR to tighten its monitoring and enforcement system to check tax evasion by certain manufacturers.

“Commissioner Dulay did the right thing in ordering an investigation after receiving field reports from our revenue officials” on the illegal practices of certain tobacco companies, said Dominguez in reaction to a report that Dulay had ordered a probe of the alleged practice by Mighty Corp. and other tobacco manufacturers to use fake tax stamps on their products.

“This is a matter of serious concern and I’m instructing the BIR to tighten monitoring and enforcement,” added Dominguez.

Last December, BIR and Bureau of Customs (BOC) teams had seized fake cigarettes worth over P1 billion, fake tax stamps worth approximately P175 million in taxes, along with raw materials, machines for cigarette manufacturing and other paraphernalia in separate raids in Pangasinan, Pampanga and Bulacan.

Dominguez had lauded the BOC and BIR for intensifying their unified campaign against the illicit tobacco trade and said such raids prove that the Duterte administration is serious in its resolve to fight corruption and other illegal activities on all fronts.

“These sustained efforts show that the Duterte administration’s campaign against corruption and other illegal activities would be pursued with the same zeal as its war against narco traffickers and illegal drugs,” he added.

In a report to Dominguez, the BIR said last month that it had shut down the premises of an unauthorized manufacturer of various cigarette brands in Lubao, Pampanga and confiscated “5.5 million pieces of fake unused cigarette strip stamps worth approximately P175-million in excise taxes and VAT (value added tax).”

“The machines and other materials for tobacco manufacture were put under the custody of the NTA (National Tobacco Administration),” BIR Regional Director Jethro Sabarriaga said in his report to Dulay.

According to Sabarriaga, the taxpayer who owns the feed mill where the raid was conducted had registered with the BIR as a hog mill feed operator last October 2016.

“The machines seized are capable of producing 200,000 packs of cigarettes per day and supplies and stamps in warehouse are estimated to be good for one month’s production. The stamps appear to be imported and with Chinese characters,” Sabarriaga said.

In a separate report to Dominguez, the BOC said last month it had raided a facility in Marilao, Bulacan where unlicensed raw materials for cigarette production, among them, over 500 boxes of cigarette filters, 100 sacks of tobacco leaves, reels of inner liner, cigarette paper, and packing film, were found.

Moreover, Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon said four warehouses found to be counterfeiting popular cigarette brands in Villasis, Pangasinan were raided by a composite team led by the BOC, which led to the seizure of various materials for cigarette manufacturing and the arrest of 24 undocumented foreign nationals.

Faeldon bared that the raid on the warehouses inside the Villasis compound yielded over P1 billion worth of fake cigarettes, along with 11 units of cigarette making/packaging machines, 1,453 sacks of cut-filter, 27 containers of menthol solution, 1,149 master cases for assorted brands of cigarettes, 22 trays of filter, 378 rolls of inner liner, 469 rolls of clear wrap, 2,173 reams of counterfeit BIR tax stamps, 88 pales glue, 1,251 packs of cigarette brand soft labels, 4 units of air compressor, and 3, 244 bundles of assorted master cases.

“District Collector (of La Union) Romeo Allan Rosales immediately issued Warrants of Seizure and Detention (WSD) against the said items. Additionally, 24 undocumented foreign nationals were found inside the compound and were turned over to BID (Bureau of Immigration) representative, Atty. Paul Versola and [who] subsequently turned [them] over to the Alien Custodian Office in Poro Point, LA Union,” Faeldon said in his report to Dominguez.

The raid also led to the seizure of counterfeit labels of cigarette brands manufactured by Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp. (PMFTC) and the arrest of a certain Jayson Enero Li.