Bureau of Customs Port of Clark officers led by district collector lawyer Ruby Claudia Alameda point to the counterfeit cigarettes-manufacturing machines being smashed by backhoe at the Port of Clark grounds Monday. Contributed Photo
CLARK FREEPORT – Counterfeit cigarettes manufactured in different warehouses in Central Luzon deprived the government of a whopping P22 billion in revenues from 2014 to 2017.
So revealed a key official of the Japan Tobacco International (JTI) on Monday, saying this prompted the company to coordinate with the Department of Finance and law enforcement authorities an intensified campaign against the proliferation of fake cigarettes across the Philippine archipelago.
“This has greatly affected the production of legitimate cigarette manufacturers resulting to a big loss in the Philippine government tax revenues,” said JTI external lawyer Maria Rona Vergara.
Vergara attended the ceremonial condemnation of multimillion-peso- worth counterfeit cigarette- making machines held at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) Port of Clark.
According to Vergara, thousands of master cases of cigarettes bearing unknown brands have been seized in recent raids conducted by the BOC, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and the police in different areas of the region.
She extrapolated, thus: The prevailing price of tax stamp is P45 per pack of cigarettes. Ten packs comprise one ream. Fifty reams make one master case. Thousands of master cases have been confiscated. P45 times the number of packs in every ream, in every case, “that’s a big revenue for the government.”
Port of Clark district collector Atty. Ruby Claudia Alameda disclosed the biggest machines manufacturing fake cigarettes were seized at the Global Asian Park in Barangay San Isidro, San Simon, Pampanga early this year. They were sneaked into the country consigned to one Kevin Esguerra.
The seven cigarette-making machines along with a plastic recycling machine, a manual lifter, a generator set, and a generator cooling system were smashed with a backhoe. Alameda said several machines were also discovered in a warehouse at the RIS Industrial Park in Guguinto, Bulacan sometime in 2018 consigned to a certain Eduard Ang.
Only last month, agents of the Regional Intelligence Division- Special Concern Unit (RID-SCU) raided several stalls selling counterfeit cigarettes in the Meycauayan, Bulacan public market. Similar operations were jointly conducted by the BOC and BIR in other areas in Bulacan where millions worth of fake cigarettes were seized.
“The campaign is part of the BOC’s relentless efforts to prevent illicit trade and customs fraud,” said Alameda while supervising the destruction of fake cigarette-manufacturing machines at the Port of Clark grounds.
Several machines seized in a raid in Barangay Mitla, Porac, Pampanga were scheduled to be destroyed Tuesday, along with 145 master cases carrying different brands of cigarettes.
“The activity is to send a strong message to smugglers to stop their illegal business practices shortchanging the government of rightful revenues,” Alameda said.
