PORAC, Pampanga — Government officials led the destruction of cigarette-making machines and paraphernalia seized from illegal factories in Pampanga and Pangasinan.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said these include units and parts of three filter maker machines, two packaging machines, and a cigarette making machine used in the process of manufacturing illicit cigarettes that are then affixed with counterfeit tax stamps.
Aside from these, 484 master cases of various finished cigarette brands, as well as raw materials such as filter rods, tipping papers, packaging foil, acetate tow, and other supplies, were shredded at the DiGaMa Waste Facility in Barangay Mitla.
In his message, Dominguez said this is not the first time the government is destroying illicit cigarette products, and this will not be the last. But this is the first time they are destroying the machines that make them.
“Destroying them will ensure that they can never again be used to defraud the government of what it is due and to cheat consumers by peddling them counterfeit products,” the secretary said.
He added the destruction of these confiscated contraband will send a clear two-pronged message: Illicit manufacturing will not be tolerated, and tax evasion will be hounded ceaselessly.
“By destroying illicit tobacco products, we remove all temptation to sneak them back into the market. By destroying the machines that make them, we raise the risks for doing illicit manufacturing exponentially higher. Both will do the public some good,” he noted.
On the part of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Commissioner Cesar Dulay assured the public that its STRIKE Team will continue to respond swiftly and enforce tax laws and regulations against those engaged in this illegal activity and curtail the illicit manufacturing of cigarettes using counterfeit tax stamps.
The destruction of the machineries and contraband was witnessed by national and local officials, as well as key players from the tobacco industry.