P18M Mighty cigarettes with fake tax stamps seized in Samar

Personnel from the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs open up boxes of seized Mighty cigarettes with fake tax stamps inside the BoC-Region 8 office in Tacloban City. The seized items were worth P18 million. (PHOTO BY JOEY GABIETA / INQUIRER VISAYAS)

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte — At least P18 million worth of Mighty cigarettes with fake tax stamps were intercepted in Samar, brought to the regional office of the Bureau of Customs in this city and officially seized.

Customs officials said the delivery would have denied the government of at least P10 million in excise tax.

A wing van loaded with 630 boxes or master cases were seized by the members of the Bureau of Customs at Barangay San Pedro, Santa Rita town, Samar, on Friday night (Apr. 7).

These were brought to Tacloban City and were opened by Bureau of Customs agents past 11 a.m. on Saturday at its regional office here.

Joenel Pogoy, assistant leader of the three-member BoC team, said that the confiscated items were the biggest haul in the Visayas since the government started its crackdown against the company for using fake stamps to evade payment of excise tax.

He said that the driver and helper of the wing van, with plate number ACO 8487, were not arrested because they were merely hired by the company to deliver the Mighty products in Tacloban.

Charry Gaspay, lawyer of the Mighty Corp. here, questioned the legality of the seizure, saying the BoC had no jurisdiction and authority to confiscate these since these were locally made.

The vehicle came from Manila and was heading to its warehouse in Tacloban City when these were seized in Sta. Rita on Friday.

This was the third seizure in Eastern Visayas in a span of one month.

The first was on March 6 when P12 million worth of Mighty products were seized by the BoC at the Tacloban city port.

Last April 7, 14 cartoons of Mighty cigarettes worth P360,000 were also seized by the BoC at the office of the company in San Jose District.

All cigarettes bore fake tax stamps after these were checked using a gadget based on the results of BoC’s inspection using a taggant reader, a stamp verifier.

The gadget emits a red light when put next to the fake stamp and green, for the real ones.

In the case of the Mighty cigarettes, the gadget emitted red light.  SFM/rga