Pampanga fire razes P 4-B seized cigarettes, machines

CALLED TO DUTY From the roof of a building adjacent to burning warehouses, firefighters try to extinguish the blaze that destroyed three structures in Porac town, Pampanga province, on Monday. At least P4 billion worth of cigarettes, raw materials and manufacturing machines seized by the government in its crackdown of counterfeit products were lost to the fire. —JUN A. MALIG

PORAC, PAMPANGA—More than P4 billion worth of cigarettes, raw materials and manufacturing machines seized by the government from different parts of the country over the past few years turned into ashes after three warehouses were razed by fire on Monday.

The fire started around 1 p.m. and continued for at least 15 hours until before dawn on Tuesday despite continuous efforts by firefighters to put it out.

“It is really hard to contain and extinguish the fire because the warehouses were filled with combustible materials,” a firefighter told the Inquirer on Monday night.

The three warehouses located within a fenced 4-hectare property in Mitla village here were owned by Digama Waste Management Services and Greenleaf 88 Non-Hazardous Waste Disposal.

The cigarettes, raw materials, chemicals and manufacturing machines were in the warehouses for safekeeping and were among the pieces of evidence seized by the police, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs(BOC) in the government’s campaign against manufacturers and distributors of fake cigarettes and those using bogus BIR tax stamps.

Court evidence

The two companies also kept pieces of evidence against those who copied the products of Philip Morris International Philippines and Japan Tobacco International Philippines.

Also razed by the fire were the P1.3 billion worth of fake cigarettes and raw materials seized by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the BIR in Mabalacat City on June 24, 2021, fire officials said.

Hundreds of millions worth of similar products and cigarette-making machines that were confiscated from San Simon in Pampanga and those from the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Pangasinan and Cebu, and from Cagayan de Oro City over the past few years were also in the warehouses.

A source familiar with the seized products stored inside the burned warehouses said the blaze destroyed about P4.8 billion worth of cigarettes and related materials.

A lawyer from a tobacco company said the charred products were pieces of evidence in several court cases against individuals found manufacturing and distributing fake cigarettes.

Robert Gaza, owner of Greenleaf 88, told reporters here that security personnel noticed smoke coming from the back portion of the warehouses around 1 p.m. on Monday.

“When they went closer, the fire was already spreading fast inside and outside one of the warehouses. They immediately notified me and called the fire department,” he said.

Probe under way

Gaza said firetrucks from Porac and other towns and cities in Pampanga tried but failed to extinguish the fire as the warehouses were “filled with materials that kept on burning.”

According to Gaza, the three warehouses, which were connected to one another, have a floor area of more than 2,400 square meters and were full of cigarettes in boxes and cartons.

Porac Bureau of Fire chief Lunes Lumba said their initial investigation showed that the fire started inside one of the warehouses. They have yet to complete their investigation.

A representative from Philip Morris, who asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak on the matter, said the cigarettes could ignite in an extremely hot environment.

Only a few security personnel were in the compound when the fire broke out, as May 1 was Labor Day, a nonworking legal holiday, the Inquirer learned. INQ