Panel to probe Mighty tax case formed

MANILA, Philippines -  The Department of Justice (DOJ) has created a panel of prosecutors to investigate the P9.564-billion tax evasion charges against tobacco firm Mighty Corp. and its officials.

In Department Order No. 221, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II designated three members to the panel that would conduct preliminary investigation on the complaint filed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) last month.

Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Sebastian Caponong was named chair of the panel, with Assistant State Prosecutors Ma. Lourdes Uy and Mary Ann Parong as members.

Aguirre has tasked the panel to file the necessary charges in court against the respondents if evidence warrants.

In its complaint, the BIR accused the company of violating the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC), specifically for allegedly using bogus tax stamps on their products to evade the payment of excise tax to the government.

The charges involved unlawful possession of articles subject to excise tax without payment of tax and possession of false, counterfeit, restored or altered stamps in violation of Sections 263 and 265 (c) of the NIRC, respectively.

Among the main respondents in the criminal complaint was Alexander Wongchuking, owner and vice president for external affairs and assistant corporate secretary of the firm.

The other respondents were former Armed Forces deputy chief of staff and retired Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan, Mighty Corp.’s president; retired judge Oscar Barrientos, company executive vice president; and company treasurer Ernesto Victa.

Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Susan Dacanay, chair of the DOJ’s Run After Tax Evaders task force, received the complaint. 

The BIR filed the charges after confiscating master cases of cigarettes worth P2.3 billion bearing fake tax stamps from Mighty Corp.’s warehouse in San Simon Industrial Park in Pampanga last month.

In its complaint, the bureau stressed that mere possession of the cigarette packs with fake tax stamps is in itself a violation of the law.

It was found during inventory that 87.5 percent of the 66,281 master cases containing 33,140,500 cigarette packs in the warehouse had fake stamps that did not contain multi-layer security features.

The BIR added that the stamps were not affixed at the production plant of Mighty Corp. in Bulacan as required by law, which means the seized master cases came from another manufacturing plant.

The bureau pegged the aggregate excise tax liability of the tobacco firm at P9.564 billion.

The BIR said it might file more criminal complaints against Mighty Corp. on top of the P9.564-billion tax evasion case it filed last March 22.

BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay said yesterday the bureau is preparing to file multiple cases against the cigarette firm after it finishes the assessment of the company’s tax deficiencies from the fake excise tax stamps found in its other facilities in Bulacan and General Santos City.

“Yes (we will pile up more cases) after we have done the validation,” he said. – With Mary Grace Padin