[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’Vendors wary of fake cigarettes ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MERIANNE GRACE EREÑETA
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
ILOILO City – Fake cigarettes have entered Western Visayas. Cigarette companies recently sought the help of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG). Fake cigarettes are hurting their business.
Street vendors are aware of this and do not want to be caught and accused of peddling fake cigarettes. They get their supplies only from reputable stores.
“I buy the cigarettes I retail only from grocery stores,” said 47-year-old Marilou Inopia. She has been selling cigarettes these past 12 years.
She told Panay News some people were trying to sell her reams of cigarettes at decidedly lower process but she was suspicious.
“They were likely selling fake cigarettes,” Inopia said.
She confessed not having enough knowledge to differentiate genuine from fake cigarettes but expressed confidence in the grocery store where she buys reams of cigarettes that she in turn retails.
“I’ve been buying from that grocery store since the beginning. So far none of my buyers complained I sold them fake cigarettes,” said Inopia.
According to Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, CIDG Region 6 chief, his operatives have identified areas in Iloilo City where stores sell fake cigarettes. He, however, declined to identify these areas; his men will be conducting surprise operations soon, he explained.
“Selling fake goods violates the intellectual property rights law,” Tayaba said.
“’Yung legal team of cigarette companies nakipag-ugnayan sa amin. They have an information drive to stop the sale of fake cigarettes,” added Tayaba.
A 44-year-old cigarette vendor from Jaro district told Panay News a man offered to him reams of a popular cigarette cheaply.
“He did not show me the cigarettes. He kept them in his knapsack. I knew those were fake because they were so cheap,” said the vendor who asked to be identified only as “Nonoy.”
He said he bought his cigarette supplies from porters of cigarette companies.
Vending cigarettes for five years now, Nonoy said fake cigarettes were P50 cheaper than the genuine cigarettes.
Meanwhile, a cigarette smoker told Panay News he would know if a cigarette is genuine or fake.
“The fakes taste bitter. Genuine cigarettes, on the other hand, are smooth,” said Noel who claimed he had been smoking for the past 20 years.
He asked that his surname be kept confidential, citing the city ordinance prohibiting smoking in public places and conveyances.
Storeowners and individuals selling fake cigarettes may face charges for violating several laws such as the Tobacco Regulation Act, Consumer Protection Act, Graphic Health Warning Law, New Excise Tax Reform Law, Competition Law, the National Internal Revenue Code, and the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines.
Fake cigarettes do not bear the genuine tax stamps issued by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
They also lack “manufacturer’s markings” that indicate genuineness.
Last month, a family from Bacolod City was arrested in Kalibo, Aklan for selling fake cigarettes.
In July, the CIDG in Bacolod City arrested a local trader selling counterfeit cigarettes.
A Binondo-based syndicate suspected of supplying fake cigarettes to parts of Mindanao and Visayas was busted recently. Law enforcers raided two big warehouses on Asuncion and San Fernando streets in Binondo, Manila.
The warehouses yielded 169 master cases or boxes of counterfeit cigarettes smuggled from China.
The raiding team from National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said the seized boxes translated to 85,000 fake and untaxed cigarette packs valued at P2.2 million.
Under the Sin Tax law, medium- to high-priced cigarettes must pay a tax of P29 per pack.
The warehouses allegedly belonged to a certain Qingchang Zhou who eluded arrest during the raid.
The NBI’s Intellectual Property Rights Division believed the warehouses were serving as transshipment points for syndicates supplying fake cigarettes to parts of Mindanao and Western Visayas./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
