CABANATUAN CITY – At least 15 Chinese nationals, including a female cook, and 100 local workers were held as combined personnel of the National Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Internal Revenue swooped down on a clandestine cigarette factory in Barangay Cinco-Cinco here Thursday.
NBI director Jaime Santiago said the raid was a result of intensified intelligence operation. NBI personnel did not need a search warrant as BIR has visitorial power over such businesses.
Santiago said the Chinese workers also include one who can articulate in Filipino who also serves as overseer of his compatriots.
Aside from the hundreds of master cases of tobacco products, the government agents also found five huge manufacturing machines in the factory that counterfeits both local and imported brands.
BIR commissioner Romeo Lumagui, Jr. who also conducted a check on the products said the present stocks could have generated some P600-million in excise tax for the government. They also found over 500,000 fake stamps.
“Kung titingnan natin sa araw-araw at buwan-buwan na kanilang operasyon ay napakalaki ng dapat nakukulekta natin dito,” Lumagui said, adding that the confiscated items, including the machines, will be destroyed.
Lumagui also lamented the poor sanitation in the place which could pose harm to the smokers’ health on top of the cigar’s natural hazard.
“Ang isa pang nakita natin dito ay kung gaano kadumi rin ito. Hindi natin alam.kung nilalanghap ninyo ‘yan, hinihithit ninyo yan at hindi niyo alam ang dumi ng mga produktong ‘yan walang sanitation,” he stressed.
The government has yet to establish the identity of the factory owner who apparently rents the place. A check on its wifi connection, the NBI said, shows the place is supposedly registered to a certain JB Canlas.
Lumagui said they will press charges of violation of revenue laws against the culprits.
