PHP2.8-M Smuggled Cigarettes Seized in E.B. Magalona

By Glazyl M. Jopson

BACOLOD CITY – A total of 140 boxes of smuggled cigarettes worth PHP2.8 million were confiscated by police Tuesday in Barangay Pasil, E.B. Magalona, Negros Occidental.

Police Maj. Eric Doronilla, chief of the E.B. Magalona Municipal Police Station, said they acted on a tip about illegal activity in the area.

The operation was conducted under Section 263 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, which prohibits possession or removal of excisable goods without proper tax payment.

Doronilla said two men claiming to be carpenters were found in a hut used as an alleged storage site for the contraband.

The hut was located in a mangrove area accessible only by pump boat, he said.

The two individuals were brought to the police station for questioning and later released.

They told authorities they did not know the owner of the cigarettes or who was behind the operation.

Police suspect the items were being sold without proper tax stamps.

The confiscated goods are now in police custody and will be turned over to the appropriate government agency.

Doronilla speculated that the cigarettes may have been intended for sale in upland sari-sari stores.

Despite this, he said cigarettes sold in markets and sari-sari stores in the town proper appear to follow legal processes.

Police Col. Rainerio De Chavez, director of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, commended the town police for their intensified operations against smuggling.

The case remains under investigation as authorities continue to pursue leads to identify and arrest those responsible.

This followed recent seizures of PHP12.8 million worth of smuggled cigarettes in Cauayan, Negros Occidental, and PHP1.23 million in Canlaon City, Negros Oriental.