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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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ILOILO City – Cigarette companies sought the help of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG). Fake cigarettes were proliferating in Western Visayas, they claimed.
A legal team of one cigarette company was here a few weeks ago and checked stores, according to Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, CIDG Region 6 chief.
“May mga identified areas sa (Iloilo) city where stores were selling fake cigarettes. This is a violation of the intellectual property rights law,” Tayaba said.
No arrests were effected but the stores were warned, he added.
“Yung legal team nakipag-ugnayan sa amin. They conducted an information drive, too, to stop the sale of fake cigarettes. More on warning ‘yung ginawa namin,” said Tayaba.
Several stores in Bacolod City were also found selling fake cigarettes and they were warned, he added.
Storeowners and individuals selling fake cigarettes may face charges for violating several laws such as the Tobacco Regulation Act, Consumer Protection Act, Graphic Health Warning Law, New Excise Tax Reform Law, Competition Law, the National Internal Revenue Code, and the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines.
Fake cigarettes do not bear the genuine tax stamps issued by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
They also lack “manufacturer’s markings” that indicate genuineness.
Last month, a family from Bacolod City was arrested in Kalibo, Aklan for selling fake cigarettes.
In July, the CIDG in Bacolod City arrested a local trader selling counterfeit cigarettes.
In a related story, a Binondo-based syndicate suspected of supplying fake cigarettes to parts of Mindanao and Visayas was busted recently. Law enforcers raided two big warehouses on Asuncion and San Fernando streets in Binondo, Manila.
The warehouses yielded 169 master cases or boxes of counterfeit cigarettes smuggled from China.
The raiding team from National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said the seized boxes translated to 85,000 fake and untaxed cigarette packs valued at P2.2 million.
Under the Sin Tax law, medium- to high-priced cigarettes must pay a tax of P29 per pack.
The warehouses allegedly belonged to a certain Qingchang Zhou who eluded arrest during the raid.
The NBI’s Intellectual Property Rights Division believed the warehouses were serving as transshipment points for syndicates supplying fake cigarettes to parts of Mindanao and Western Visayas./PN
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