THE owner of embattled cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corp. has accepted the demand of President Rodrigo Duterte to pay at least P3 billion as settlement for its excise tax liabilities, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said Wednesday.
He said the Office of the President received the letter of Mighty Corp. owner Alexander Wongchuking expressing his inclination to pay the amount, which would be used to build hospitals in Basilan and Jolo and to improve the Mary Johnston Hospital in Manila.
“They accepted the offer of the President because they want to resume their operations already. They also vowed to follow the procedures if there will be cases here in the DOJ,” Aguirre told reporters.
But Aguirre said the amount cited in the letter was the P3 billion originally demanded by Duterte who later said he wanted at least P15 billion.
Aguirre made his statement even as Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III on Wednesday urged the supermarkets to ask the Bureau of Internal Revenue for help to check if the Mighty cigarettes they were selling bore fake tax stamps.
“They should surrender the fake stamps to us, the cartons with fake stamps,” Dominguez said at the sidelines of a meeting of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Makati.
“They can call the BIR. The BIR has a way to check, they have devices to check.”
Dominguez made his statement even as the Bureau of Customs ordered the import accreditation of cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corp. suspended for alleged violation of customs regulations.
In a statement, Legal Service Director Alvin Ebreo said Mighty Corp. was previously suspended by Commissioner John Sevilla in 2014 for violating its customs bonded warehouse privileges.
He said the Finance Department had previously reported Mighty Corp.’s undervaluation of imported cigarette-manufacturing materials worth P163,117,995.
In the Senate, Senator Manny Pacquiao said former Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares should be investigated to determine if she knew something about Mighty Corp.’s use of fake cigarete tax stamps.
He said the appropriate Senate committee should look into Henares’ possible links to the proliferation of fake cigarette tax stamps when she headed Internal Revenue.
“She should be held accountable on these fake stamps,” Pacquiao said.
Steven Cua, president of the Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Association, said Wednesday they needed a “clear guidance” from the authorities.
“We have no way of finding out if a product is legitimate. we need a clear guidance from authorities,” Cua said.
“Right now, the government has not issued any pronouncements on how to go about the alleged illicit Mighty products.”
Cua said it would be business as usual for the supermarkets until they received a clear guidance from the authorities.
Dominguez said last week a tax-evasion case would be pursued against Mighty Corp. for its violation of the stamp tax law.
At the sidelines of a tax forum in Makati City, Dominguez also said the fake tax stamps found in Mighty products were probably manufactured abroad and were being advertised in the web site Alibaba.com of Chinese business tycoon Jack Ma. With Julito G. Rada, Vito Barcelo and Macon Ramos-Araneta