DAVAO CITY — The first batch of more than 9,000 cases containing 4.748 million packs of seized cigarettes with brands sold by Mighty Corp. were destroyed Sunday, Nov. 26, at the Holcim Philippines geocycle plant here.

The cigarettes, which formed part of the evidence in one of the three complaints filed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) against the company, were confiscated in a joint operation in March this year by the BIR and the Bureau of Customs (BoC) in a warehouse in General Santos City leased to Mighty Corp.

The almost five million packs of cigarettes, worth an estimated P142.44 million, were confiscated for having counterfeit tax stamps.

The estimated deficiency excise tax liability of the seized cigarettes is P1.39 billion including penalty, according to the BIR.

“The decision to destroy these confiscated cigarettes came easily. We imposed sin taxes on these products in part to protect the health of our people. It would be wrong to release these products to the market,” said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez G. III in his remarks read for him at the event by Assistant Secretary Kelvin Lee of the Office of the Executive Secretary.

Mr. Dominguez said the destruction of the seized cigarettes “is intended to deliver this message: tax evasion does not pay. We will confiscate the offending products and destroy them. No one will profit from the commission of a crime.”

Besides this batch, the government is also set to destroy 66,245 cases of Mighty cigarettes confiscated in San Simon, Pampanga, another 163,183 cases in San Ildefonso, Bulacan and other smaller stockpiles confiscated in Tacloban City and Cebu. These seized cigarettes were also used as evidence in the complaints filed before the DoJ.

The complaints against Mighty had since been withdrawn after the company, with main headquarters in Bulacan, offered last July to settle its tax liabilities with the government for P25 billion and shut down its operations.

Mighty Corp. subsequently sold its assets to Japan Tobacco International to help pay off its tax arrears.

Mr. Dominguez has said the government stands to gain over P30 billion in additional revenues from Mighty’s tax settlement once the value-added tax from the sale and other fees are paid. He said this makes the tax settlement the largest sum ever paid by a single corporate entity in the country’s history.

According to Holcim Philippines, the “co-processing” method it uses for the destruction ensures the total thermal destruction of waste materials, reduces toxic gas emissions and land and groundwater pollution. — Maya M. Padillo

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