Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III is urging the Bureaus of Customs (BOC) and of Internal Revenue (BIR) to file at the soonest the appropriate charges against persons and companies proven to be the owners of P2.2 billion-worth of smuggled and counterfeit tobacco products, shoes and clothes that government agents seized in a series of raids since last week.
Customs agents have seized such “hot” goods along with live Monitor lizards on the list of endangered species in separate operations since last week, according to the BOC in a series of reports to the Department of Finance (DOF).
In a report to Dominguez, BOC Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon said customs operatives have seized over P2 billion-worth of smuggled and counterfeit tobacco products, including cigarette brands manufactured by Mighty Corp. that contained fake tax stamps, in raids in Pampanga and the cities of General Santos and Zamboanga in Mindanao.
“If the evidence warrants, I urge the BIR and BOC to file the appropriate charges in court as soon as possible,” Dominguez said.
He also wants government officials in cahoots with the erring entities included in the charge sheets if they are found to have been involved in these tax evasion bids.
“They (BOC and BIR) should speed up their investigations and also look into the possible involvement of bureaucrats acting as protectors of these large-scale tax evasion attempts,” Dominguez said.
In other operations conducted by the BOC in two buildings in Pasay City, customs teams seized some P200 million-worth of assorted clothing apparel with brand names “Adidas,” “Nike,” “Armour All,” “Vans,” “Lacoste,” “Jag,” “Wrangler,” “Under Armour,” “Superman,” and “NBA.”
Last week, the BOC also uncovered an attempt to smuggle out of the country three live Monitor Lizards, which were discovered hidden in the casing of a computer’s CPU when it passed thru X-Ray at the FedEx Cargo Warehouse at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
The sender, a Dennis Sarmiento of Cebu City, is facing charges of violating Republic Act No. 9147 or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act.
The consignee for the cargo was listed as a certain Kabren Jhason of California, according to the BOC.
In another report to Dominguez III, Faeldon said the most recent raid conducted by customs operatives on the morning of March 1 at the San Simon Industrial Park in Pampanga on five warehouses yielded some P1.98 billion worth of counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes.
Meanwhile, in an earlier tax compliance verification campaign done by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in Zamboanga City, the members of the agency’s team were refused entry into one warehouse leased by Mighty Corp.
In a separate report to Dominguez, the BIR said members of its team were not allowed to enter the premises despite having a valid mission order issued by its regional office.
This development prompted the BIR regional office in Zamboanga City to recommend “a nationwide verification [drive] in all regions,” with mission orders emanating from the national office in Manila “to ensure proper verification of the authenticity of internal revenue stamps (IRS) affixed in various cigarette brands and whether the concerned cigarette manufacturers have duly paid the required excise taxes on the articles being distributed to their various sales outlets.”
In the Pampanga raid, Faeldon said a total of 62,200 master cases of cigarettes were found by members of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) in four of the five warehouses inside the San Simon Industrial Park.
“The security team conducted random sampling/checking of each master case at least eight times per warehouse and results confirmed presence of counterfeit/smuggled cigarettes and fake tax stamps,” Faeldon said in his report.
“BIR representatives from Pampanga checked the tax stamps attached on cigarette packs and validated that fake stamps were used on [the] packs,” he added.
Faeldon said the raid was done in coordination with customs examiners, border security teams, the Philippine National Police, local officials and the management and security of the San Simon Industrial Park.
On the same day in General Santos City, a separate team of customs operatives conducted anti-illicit trade operations at the warehouse of the Sunshine Corn Mill Corp. where they uncovered 11,044 master cases of assorted cigarettes with fake tax stamps valued at around P215 million.
According to Faeldon, based on the value of the seized cigarettes, the manufacturer evaded paying taxes amounting to about P165 million.
“Operating teams validated the fake tax stamps and counterfeit cigarettes after official scanning and tagging of said cigarette packs/master cases,” Faeldon said.
In an earlier raid in Barangay Lunzuran in Zamboanga City last Feb. 22, the BOC seized 391 master cases of smuggled and/or counterfeit cigarettes baring the cigarette brands “Mighty,” “Astro,” and “Union” with an estimated value of P13.5 million.
In a separate report, the BIR informed Dominguez through Commissioner Caesar Dulay that “verification done using the Mobile Verification Devices (MVDs) revealed that the stamps affixed [in the seized items from the Zamboanga raid] were indeed spurious.”
“Similar verification conducted in surrounding retail stores revealed that cigarettes sold thereat also had fake IRS,” Jose Eric Furia, the BIR Acting Regional Director for Zamboanga City, said in his report.
The BIR said that when a team, armed with a mission order, conducted a follow-up tax compliance verification drive in one of the warehouses leased by Mighty Corp. in Barangay Lunzuran, it was refused entry by the personnel inside the building, “upon the instructions of their higher management from the main office in Luzon.”
The warehouse personnel were reportedly told by higher management that their company is on the list of registered Large Taxpayers and that in the absence of a written directive from the BIR National Office, the BIR raiding team couldn’t use their MVDs to enter the building and verify the stamps attached to the cigarettes.
