Police tracking down shady people selling smuggled and fake cigarettes arrested a third suspect at a public market in Guiginto, Bulacan, not far from where two other preys were captured earlier by operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation.
The PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Bulacan, under Police Chief Insp. Patrick Ramillano, held Eva Bulante after she was caught red-handed selling fake Mighty Corp. products at Sta. Rita Public Market in Guiguinto.
Bulante was charged with violating Section 155 in relation to Section 170 of Republic Act 8293, also known as the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, following a criminal complaint filed by an MC representative.
CIDG chief, Police Director Victor Deona, said fake tobacco products posed a serious threat to consumers and the economy because they were not tax-paid.
“This is why they are being sold very cheap,” Deona said, warning against the sale and distribution of contraband “because we are ready to charge them and throw them in jail.”
The CIDG chief said aside from the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, those caught could also be help for violating Republic Act 7394, or the Consumer Protection Act, and the National Internal Revenue Code, whose penalties range from one year to 12 years imprisonment and fines of up to P200,000, or both.
Earlier, NBI agents collared Guillermo Ediesca and Jonathan Jimenez while selling counterfeit Mighty Full Flavor and Menthol 100’s soft pack variants at a sari-sari store in Bocaue, Bulacan on a complaint filed by MC, the Filipino-owned cigarette manufacturer.
Among the discrepancies confirmed by Mighty were the cigarette quality and the print packaging such as misspelling of the word “Manufactured” to “Manufacture” and the absence of an obscure manufacturing code on the packs, among others.
Demonstrating its commitment to curb the proliferation of illicit cigarettes in the country, MC destroyed cartons of seized fake and untaxed cigarettes.
Mighty representatives along with officials of the PNP, Bureau of Customs, NBI and the Bureau of Internal Revenue witnessed the swift destruction of the bogus products, including more than 4,000 sticks of fake Mighty brands.
The counterfeit cigarettes were part of a large cache of bogus products seized last month by authorities inside a warehouse in Sta. Cruz, Manila, following the nationwide campaign, initiated by MC, BoC, NBI, PNP and the BIR.