• 3 hours ago
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Transcript
00:00Peking Cigarillos were sighted in a factory in Bulacan and three warehouses in Valenzuela.
00:06Live from Valenzuela, we have the first news from Bea Pinlac.
00:10Bea.
00:14Egan, not only the warehouses but also the factory of Peking Cigarillos were attacked by the authorities in Valenzuela and Bulacan last night.
00:23More than 100 Filipino and Chinese employees were in the custody of the police.
00:32Thousands of boxes of Peking Cigarillos were confiscated by the police and the officials of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in this warehouse in Valenzuela last night.
00:41This is just one of the warehouses they attacked in the city where smugglers were found.
00:48The authorities confiscated Peking Cigarillos worth P11 billion in a factory in San Rafael, Bulacan and in three separate warehouses here in Valenzuela.
01:01Some of the boxes have tax stamps that are similar to the old designs and others do not have tax stamps.
01:09This is considered an economic sabotage because of the magnitude of non-payment of taxes.
01:15Hopefully, we will be able to arrest and stop these kinds of activities.
01:20We are looking at who is behind this operation.
01:25155 Filipino and one Chinese employee were arrested in the factory of Peking Cigarillos in San Rafael, Bulacan.
01:34According to the BIR, the operation is dirty and messy.
01:38Aside from the messiness we are looking at, there are a lot of messiness that we can see because it's just on the beach.
01:44They don't have proper sanitation on how they are doing it and the facilities are very dirty.
01:51Three warehouses in Valenzuela were also found with Peking Cigarillos.
01:55Some of them do not have tax stamps while others have Peking tax stamps.
02:00Three Chinese and one Filipino employee of the said warehouse were arrested here.
02:06Sir, do you know that you're working for illegal operations here in the Philippines?
02:11No.
02:12You don't know, sir? How long have you been working here?
02:16According to the police, they are contacting various government agencies to investigate the documents of those arrested.
02:25They have Philippine driver's license and we are investigating them because they have local addresses.
02:33We will verify this with the LTO.
02:35We have already coordinated with the Interagency Committee Against Trafficking and we will send a communication to the BI
02:43and request assistance for the disposition of foreigners.
02:48The police are continuously tracking those behind the illegal operation.
02:52We have identified them and we are already in the process of tracking them down.
02:57We are checking if the lessees, the people who signed the contracts here, are identified.
03:04According to the BIR, the issue of Peking Cigarillos tax stamps is a serious problem.
03:09According to the BIR, they plan to issue a mechanism in 2026 so that consumers will know using their mobile phones
03:16if the products they are buying are Peking or legitimate.
03:20Igan, the BIR reminds consumers that even if the sale of Peking Cigarillos is cheaper,
03:27it should not be a problem. Why?
03:30Because aside from being illegal, it does not comply with the standards.
03:35That is the first news from Valenzuela.
03:37Bea Pinlac for GMA Integrated News.

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