BIR seizes P516 million illicit cigarettes; Senate eyes probe

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January 25, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Bureau of Internal Revenue and Highway Patrol Group operatives seized smuggled cigarettes valued at P516.79 million in Valenzuela on Friday.

Armed with mission orders, BIR and HPG personnel found truckloads of unregistered cigarettes in a storage facility in Barangay Gen. T. de Leon.

BIR commissioner Charlito Martin Mendoza said the operation was based on a tip relayed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government that illicit tobacco products were being kept in the storage facility.

Over 1,274 master cases of smuggled cigarettes loaded in trucks were recovered in the operation after authorities found the products did not have the mandatory internal revenue stamp required by the National Internal Revenue Code – evidence of non-payment of excise taxes.

The BIR said the seizure is the first joint enforcement action against the illicit cigarette trade for 2026.

“It signals the BIR’s renewed and intensified commitment to combating tax evasion and illicit tobacco trade,” the agency said in a statement.

According to an ABS-CBN News report, authorities got word of the illicit cargo from two Chinese nationals who were arrested in Quezon City.

The BIR said the unregistered tobacco products have an estimated excise tax deficiency of P516,795,424.60, inclusive of penalties and surcharges.

Acting Philippine National Police chief Lt. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said the public should expect intensified operations against tobacco smuggling.

“Smuggling is not a victimless crime, it deprives the government of revenue and fuels other illegal activities,” he said in a statement.

Senate probe

Meanwhile, Senate finance committee chair Sherwin Gatchalian believed politicians are in cahoots with rogue law enforcers to smuggle illicit cigarettes and cheat the government of sin taxes.

Speaking on radio dwIZ yesterday, Gatchalian said he filed Senate Resolution 250 calling for a probe since his ways and means committee investigation during the previous Congress was on sin tax leakages due to smuggled tobacco.

“This time, we would like to look at personalities who are potential protectors of syndicates,” Gatchalian said.

He said he has had meetings with law enforcement agencies about the involvement of uniformed personnel and politicians in smuggling tobacco, particularly in Mindanao, which serves as a backdoor to Malaysia.

“There are politicians’ names being brought up, but we need to vet these,” Gatchalian said as he refused to name those involved in smuggling.

He expressed alarm at “security forces” involved as “financiers” of smuggling activities, as alleged by PNP-Highway Patrol Group (HPG) director Brig. Gen. Hansel Marantan.

“Tobacco smuggling can only happen with collusion between politicians and law enforcement agencies,” Gatchalian said, citing findings of his previous ways and means committee probe.

As revealed by the BIR during that ways and means probe, excise tax collection has steadily declined, reaching only P130.9 billion from January to November 2024, compared to P134.9 billion in 2023, P160.3 billion in 2022 and P176.5 billion in 2021.

Smuggled tobacco has also flooded the market. While the overall cigarette market declined from 103.3 billion sticks in 2014 to 55.6 billion sticks in 2023, the market share of the illicit trade rose from 12.2 percent in 2014 to 19.8 percent in 2023. — Marc Jayson Cayabyab