Various smuggled cigarettes, raw materials in making cigarettes, and P1-billion worth of fake tax stamps were disposed by the Port of Zamboanga.

Smuggled cigarettes worth P195 million and cigarette-making materials valued at P350 million were destroyed at the Fast Cargo Logistics Warehouse in Barangay Baliwasan in Zamboanga City.

More than 5,500 master cases of cigarettes were spread on an outdoor yard of the warehouse, drenched with water and then disposed at the sanitary landfill in Barangay Salaan.

District Collector Segundo Sigmundfreud Barte Jr. said that the smuggled cigarettes were seized in separate operations since May this year in Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

The P1-billion fake tax stamps used in cigarettes cases, on the other hand, were turned over to the Bureau of Internal Revenue for investigation and disposal, the Bureau of Customs said.

The counterfeit internal revenue stamps were taken into Customs custody during the series of apprehensions last May 2020 in Pagadian City.

“Following protocol, these counterfeit stamps are turned over to BIR for proper investigation and disposal. This is in line with the bureau’s mandate to protect local and legitimate businesses along with the public, from health risks that illegal goods may pose,” Barte said.

Barte also commended the bureau’s partner agencies--Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine National Police, Philippine Marines, Philippine Navy, National Bureau of Investigation, Joint Task Force Zamboanga, the military, local government and other concerned stakeholders-- for their support and active cooperation in their anti-smuggling campaign.

The condemnation ceremony was witnessed by local government officials, heads of partner law enforcement agencies, representatives from Commission on Audit, Food and Drug Administration, and stakeholders from the Southern Philippines Deep Sea Fishing Association Inc. (SOPHIL) and Fahad Nisal from the Chamber of Customs Brokers Incorporated.