AFTER the 1.5 billion peso worth of illegally imported cigarette products were seized in Malabon on New Year’s Eve, 1Tahanan Partylist Representative Nathan Oducado urged his fellow lawmakers anew to crack down against smugglers of cigarettes and other tobacco-based products by legislating stronger penalties and enforcement.
“The recent streak of arrests and seizures in the past two weeks alone show that smugglers have been operating without fear of punishment for far too long,” Oducado stressed. “Meanwhile, law-abiding business-owners and consumers end up paying for the real cost of these smuggled goods.”
Smuggled cigarettes worth P143 million were seized in Quezon City just last week followed by P5.2 million worth of smuggled cigarettes in Zamboanga on December 23, P2.4 million in Brooke’s Point, Palawan on December 25, and P120 million in Pampanga on December 28, with another another P1.2 million in Zamboanga.
“The illegal importation, manufacture, sale, distribution, and possession of cigarettes have become a serious and persistent problem that undermines public revenue, weakens tax administration, distorts fair competition, and threatens public health,” said Oducado. “These figures show that illicit cigarette trade is no longer isolated or incidental, but systemic and widespread.”
Just this month, Oducado filed House Bill 6965, which introduces stronger penalties based on the quantity of cigarettes involved, significantly higher sanctions for organized and large-scale smuggling, and higher degrees of liability for leaders, financiers, and masterminds criminally accountable regardless of the volume seized.
“With this Bill, we also would classify organized and large-volume illicit cigarette trade as economic sabotage, reflecting the serious and lasting harm it inflicts on the national economy and public welfare,” Oducado stated. “In certain provinces, illicit cigarette penetration has been so rampant, implying the presence of organized and well-financed smuggling operations.”
Oducado stressed that in recent years, the share of illicit cigarettes in the Philippine market increased from approximately 7.4 percent in 2021 to about 18.4 percent by the end of 2024, with projections indicating that illegal cigarettes may account for as much as 21 percent of total cigarette sales nationwide.
“Smugglers kill the local industry with unfair competition and endanger the lives of the public with unsafe, unregulated products,” Oducado added. “We lawmakers cannot let these crime syndicates and their protectors run rampant.”
