Bacolod destroys PHP 37.1 million in smuggled cigarettes

BACOLOD CITY – Authorities destroyed 377 boxes of smuggled cigarettes worth PHP 37,131,000 at a sanitary landfill in Barangay Felisa on Wednesday.

Police Col. Eugene Rebadomia, director of the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO), said more than 18,000 reams of cigarettes had been surrendered to police.

Police Station 4 accounted for the largest share, with cigarettes worth PHP 21,000,000 seized during a checkpoint in Barangay Villamonte last April.

Other confiscated cigarettes came from the areas covered by Police Station 5, with PHP 67,000; Police Station 6, with PHP 16,000,000; Police Station 7, with PHP 49,000; and Police Station 9, with PHP 15,000.

Rebadomia said the cigarettes were first crushed with a road roller and then soaked with water from a fire truck.

The process was repeated several times to ensure that the cigarettes were completely destroyed.

Other cigarettes were shredded before the waste materials were disposed of with other garbage to prevent their reuse.

Rebadomia said burning the cigarettes was not an appropriate disposal method because of the hazards posed by their chemical contents.

He said the cigarettes were considered fake, lacked proper documentation and violated Republic Act 10643, or the Graphic Health Warnings Law.

The law requires prescribed graphic health warnings on cigarette and other tobacco product packaging.

Representatives of the Bureau of Fire Protection, Commission on Audit and Bureau of Internal Revenue, along with city and barangay officials, witnessed the ceremonial destruction.

The BCPO is investigating whether the cigarettes were locally made or sourced from abroad.