Raid nets fake-brand cigarettes

BACOLOD CITY – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) seized 798 boxes of cigarettes with fake brands during a raid in two warehouses at the Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. (Bredco) port Thursday night.

Lt. Col. Luke Ventura, head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Negros Occidental, said they had been keeping the warehouses under surveillance after receiving reports that contraband cigarettes were stored there.

Ventura said the BIR assisted his team during the raid.

There was no one inside the warehouses during the raid but authorities have identified the owner, whose name they refused to divulge.

“This is economic sabotage kasi hindi sila nagbabayad ng tax

sa government,” Ventura said.

He said they are validating if these products were manufactured in the Visayas.

BIR officials conducted an inventory of the seized items the following day, and have yet to declare how much they are worth.

Each box has 50 reams, and could be equivalent to R17,500 in excise taxes.

According to BIR Region 12 Director Antonio Jonathan Jaminola, consumers will not be able to determine if the cigarettes are fake when they are sold in the markets.

This is even more harmful to a person’s health because we even don’t know the ingredients of these products, he added.

“These products were illegally manufactured. And the owner has violated Section 236 of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC),” Jaminola said.