Bureau of Internal Revenue Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa scoops up a pile of shredded fake cigarettes during the destruction of cigarette-making machines and tobacco products in Barangay Bayabas, Cagayan de Oro City on Thursday, Aug. 22. (Jigger J. Jerusalem/davaotoday.com)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — Illegally manufactured tobacco products and cigarette-making machines estimated to be worth more than a billion pesos were destroyed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in a facility in Barangay Bayabas, this City, Thursday (Aug. 22). BIR officials have vowed to go after individuals who are engaging in the manufacturing of consumer goods without paying the required taxes.
“We want to send the message to our taxpayers who are not registering with the BIR that they are doing this illicit manufacturing of cigarettes. The government is really bent on running against these illegal activities of people who are manufacturing cigarettes without paying excise tax,” said BIR deputy commissioner Arnel Guballa.
He said: “This is to show the perpetrators that the government is not sleeping on its job to really curb this manufacturing of illegal [cigarettes] because with this we can stop the production and therefore we can collect the right taxes, because we need these taxes for our Build Build Build project.”
Guballa said it was the first time that the destruction of the equipment and cigarettes was conducted in Mindanao.
During the destruction, the boxes of cigarettes were shredded while the various cigarette-making equipment were smashed using a heavy-duty jackhammer.
BIR Strike Team chief Remedios Advincula said the tobacco products were estimated to be worth more than a billion pesos, including penalties.
The machines’ total worth was pegged at P120 million.
BIR Regional Director for Northern Mindanao Nuzar Balatero said the destroyed products and equipment were confiscated in three separate raids at various locations on May 26, 2018, on the strength of mission orders that allowed bureau operatives to conduct raids.
The cigarette factories were located at the Alwana Business Park in Barangay Cugman and in Barangay Poblacion, Villanueva town, Misamis Oriental.
“The destruction of these machineries is mandated by law to ensure that these devices can never be used in pursuing illegal manufacturing of cigarettes,” Balatero said.
Advincula said various charges for violation of tax law, particularly unlawful possession of fake stamps, were already filed at the Department of Justice against the people behind the production of counterfeit tobacco products.
He, however, did not name the respondents only saying that there are foreign nationals as well as Filipinos involved. (davaotoday.com)
