BIR seizes P2B in untaxed cigarettes

DAGUPAN CITY — Five Chinese nationals were arrested and untaxed cigarettes worth at least P2 billion were seized during simultaneous raids on Wednesday by a Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) team in Mangaldan and Bugallon towns in Pangasinan province.

Fake internal revenue stamps and several boxes of fake excise tax stamps were also confiscated, according to lawyer Remedios Advincula Jr., team leader of the BIR unit on excisable goods.

The raid on a warehouse at Barangay Malabago in Mangaldan yielded millions of pesos worth of raw materials used in the manufacture of cigarettes, a raiding team member said.

The warehouse was used to store raw materials for a cigarette factory that the team raided at Barangay Portic in Bugallon.

“When fresh materials come in, these are first transported to the Mangaldan warehouse because there is limited space in Bugallon,” said the team member, who declined to be identified for lack of authority to talk about the raids.

Ex-cop

A pre-enforcement investigation showed the Bugallon factory and Mangaldan warehouse were owned by a former policeman, who was not present during the raids, the member said.

He said the Bugallon factory is located about a kilometer behind a piggery farm and could be accessed only through several gates.

Aside from the Chinese, who have tourist visas, 20 workers from Mindanao were also found in the area. “No one [among the workers] was from Pangasinan,” said the source.

The factory produces about 200,000 sticks of cigarettes a day. The cigarettes were sold for about 30 to 35 percent cheaper than the original prices, the source said. —INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON