Salceda hails BOC for stern action on smuggled cigarettes resale racket

Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda (Rep. Salceda's Office)

House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda has hailed the Bureau of Customs (BOC) for taking stern action on the alleged resale of seized smuggled cigarettes amounting to P270 million.

"I commend [BOC] Commissioner [Bienvenido] Rubio for immediately taking action on the suspected resale of seized cigarettes," Salceda said in a statement Tuesday, Feb. 25.

With the help of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the BOC had said that “heads will roll” among agency personnel upon the discovery of the botched contraband resale.

"At any given time, there are billions' worth of smuggled or illicit cigarettes in government storages," noted Salceda.

"We will make official inquiries in writing on whether it is possible to have Congress regularly updated on BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) and BOC's inventory of illicit goods, particularly excisable goods like tobacco," he said.

The economist-solon said that for now, transparency in the government's store of seized goods will help prevent future incidents. 

"As a matter of law, it does not make sense that government has large quantities of smuggled products in storage for evidence," he said.

"In my House Bill (HB) No. 11286, or the Anti-Illicit Tobacco Trade Act, which the House approved on third reading, I proposed the immediate destruction of all seized tobacco products, except a small amount retained for evidentiary purposes," he recalled.

Salceda expressed confidence that such measure "will decisively stop the practice of selling large volumes of seized smuggled tobacco".