Found with fake tax stamps: BOC team seizes P9M worth of cigarettes

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — A team from the Bureau of Customs yesterday morning intercepted a van at the Allen ferry terminal in Northern Samar and confiscated its cargo of 360 boxes of Mighty cigarettes, worth P9.4 million.

Captain Jonnel Pogoy, who led the team composed of BOC agents and BIR-8 representatives, inspected the cigarettes —witnessed by Mighty Corporation’s lawyer Charlyn Gaspay Mauro — and found with the use of a taggant reader to bear counterfeit tax stamps.

"We want to emphasize this to the public that the stamp verifier (taggant reader) we use is reliable and not scripted," said Pogoy, who then decided to take the cigarettes into the custody of the BOC-8 in Tacloban City, while investigation is going on to determine the legal liabilities of Mighty Corp. on the cargo.

The seizure of the cigarettes in Northern Samar came after the same BOC team of Pogoy on Friday afternoon inspected a warehouse in Tacloban City and seized 14 boxes of Mighty cigarettes — worth P300,000 — that were found also with fake BIR stamps.

The BOC operatives conducted the surprise inspection, in coordination with the Tacloban Police, of a warehouse owned by a Chinese businessman at Barangay 83 of San Jose district, this city.

The team seized the cigarettes, also in the presence of Mighty Corp. lawyer Mauro, but a hundred more boxes of the items were however found to have authentic BIR stamps.

"This time, our legal team will determine what specific criminal charges we will be filing. We are not targeting only one company, we are just responding to tips and information about illegal activities, like this," Pogoy told The Freeman and The Philippine Star.

Early last month, joint operatives from BOC Tacloban and from the head office, headed by Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon, seized from the Tacloban Port 400 boxes of Mighty cigarettes (worth P6 million), found to have fake tax stamps. (FREEMAN)