BIR to file tax evasion case vs. owner of seized Mighty

Coast Guard personnel guard container vans of Mighty cigarettes, which were earlier confiscated after being found to bear fake tax stamps at Pier 4 in Cebu City.
CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA

Justice chief Aguirre explains why he let Mighty owner walk free

The Bureau of Internal Revenue in Central Visayas (BIR-13) is trying to identify the owner of boxes of Mighty cigarettes with fake tax stamps found in container vans in Cebu City the day before so that they can file the appropriate tax evasion charges.

This developed after BIR-13 representatives took custody of goods from the 40-footer container vans at Pier 4 on Wednesday.

“The items will be kept in the custody of the BIR. These items are now condemned,” Lawyer Neri Yu, BIR-13 chief legal officer, told Cebu Daily News on Wednesday.

The vans were unloaded from MV Don Alberto Sr. of Gothong Shipping Lines from Manila via Tacloban City and were opened by personnel of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) a day earlier (Tuesday).

Yu said they are still determining the quantity and market value of the items, and the excise tax foregone.

The shipment was consigned to a certain Rolando Pocong.

As of 5:30 p.m. yesterday, BIR-13 was still doing an inventory on the confiscated goods.

Other local BIR officials could not issue further comments as they were not authorized.

Pampanga shipment

Customs officials believed that these cigarettes were part of a shipment, a portion of which was seized in an operation in Pampanga.

Those cigarettes that were not confiscated in Pampanga were sent to different areas and warehouses in the country, a customs official said.

The Bureau of Customs and the BIR earlier seized 11,044 master cases of Mighty cigarettes worth P215 million in General Santos City on top of the 62,000 master cases worth P1.98 billion in San Simon, Pampanga, because their tax stamps were fake.

A month ago, the BIR Cebu office also seized 165 boxes filled with “Mighty” brand cigarettes in a mall in Mandaue City.

Arrest Mighty owner

On Tuesday, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the arrest of Mighty Corp. owner, Alex Wong Chu King, for economic sabotage.

However, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre Jr., who meet with King during a closed-door meeting, disregarded President Duterte’s order to arrest the businessman and let him walk free.

No case

In a statement on Wednesday, Aguirre explained that he did not have King arrested because there was no case against Wong Chu King, whom the President accused of economic sabotage.

He said that during the closed-door meeting, the businessman expressed his willingness to fully cooperate with any probe.

“I believe that the proper thing to do is for the representatives of Mighty Corp., the Department of Finance, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the DOJ to sit down and to fully determine the exact liabilities of Mighty Corp., if any, and for the government to collect what is rightfully due to it,” Aguirre pointed out.

Public assured

He assured the public that should the BIR and the BOC find cause to file charges against Wong Chu King as well as other officers of Mighty Corporation, the DOJ would do its duty and determine the existence of probable cause.

“There is no reason to have Alex Wong Chu King arrested as of the moment. While the DOJ is at the forefront of ensuring that our laws be faithfully obeyed, there is a process that has to be observed under the law,” Aguirre emphasized. /With Inquirer.net report