Administrative penalties should be imposed on government officials who are involved in the dismissal of cases of cigarette smuggling, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said.

Gatchalian said the stringent penalties should apply especially to state officials who were repeatedly negligent in following technical rules in raids and seizures of smuggling products that led to the dismissal of court cases.

The senator said that a random review of court cases filed against smugglers showed some of these cases were dismissed due to technicalities, rather than on the merits of the case.

“Nagkaroon nga ng operation at nasamsam ang mga smuggled na produkto (there was an operation carried out and the smuggled products were seized) but we lose the case because of technicality,” the chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means noted.

“Dapat bago pa ang operasyon ay plantsado na ito (They should have been fully prepared even before the operation),” Gatchalian pointed out.

“Even if the evidence is strong and we're very confident that it will prosper, but when the case is filed, we lose because of technicalities,” he said.

Gatchalian said this proposal should especially apply to officials of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) who are found to be repeatedly negligent in following standard operating procedures.

He said they should be charged administratively and penalized with appropriate sanctions to deter cases from getting dismissed due to technicality.

In at least two cases of random review conducted by his team, Gatchalian said the warrantless search was deemed illegal and thus, the boxes of cigarettes seized were inadmissible as evidence.

In another case, he said the prosecution failed to establish proper tracing of goods from import documents to the actual physical inspection. Eventually, they failed to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Saturnino Distor, president of Philippine Tobacco Growers Association (PTGA), had called on the Marcos administration to consider the appointment of a “tobacco czar” who will strictly implement the country’s anti-smuggling laws and prevent the rampant tobacco smuggling activities in the country.

Distor said the tobacco czar “should be brave and can defend the tobacco industry.”

“He must be able to confront these cigarette smuggling groups, at the same time have connections,” Distor told reporters in a recent interview in San Fabian, Pangasinan.

At the same time, he said the tobacco czar should be able to lay down programs that effectively push for the welfare of tobacco farmers and support the needs of local growers.

Due to rampant smuggling, Distor said many tobacco farmers are discouraged to continue as they no longer find the industry a reliable source of livelihood.