Foes of Mayoral Bet in Fake Ciggies Rejoice

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

SUAL – The political opponents of this town mayoralty candidate Dong Calugay have been rejoicing after his name appeared on the Mission Order by the Bureau of Internal Revenue as the presumed owner of a raided factory that manufactured fake cigarettes.

“So that the people of Sual, and Pangasinan will know! Sual is not for sale! Please share!” JC A. Arcinue, the son of come backing mayoralty aspirant John Arcinue posted Saturday on his Facebook page above the videos of GMA-7 Television Network, Radio Agila, and links of national newspapers like the Philippine Daily Inquirer that reported the raid of the BIR and the National Bureau of Investigation in the night of November 28.

The Mission Order implemented by the BIR included the names of Calugay and Joan Does of the CL Factory in Barangay Portic, Bugallon, Pangasinan.

A notice by one of the residents of Sual, Pangasinan posted at social media's Facebook.

“Warning! Sa Sual Bawal ang Fake na Sigarilyo”, a certain Ruben Llamas posted too a designed notice at the social media network.

A source who asked for anonymity cited that the same notice converted into huge tarpaulin banners have proliferated near the highways here and near the roads of the 19 villages insinuating to somebody.
 The same source said that supporters of the Arcinues in this town have been telling their friends that Dong Calugay, a former resident of Portic, Bugallon, is nowhere to be found.

“Tapos na ang election sa Sual, Panalo na ang mga Arcinues” he continued.

John and his father incumbent mayor Roberto Arcinue are running for the mayorship and the vice mayorship in the May 13, 2019 polls.

Barangay Portic is the place where the more than two billion pesos non taxed spurious cigarettes and their tens of millions of pesos paraphernalia like 3 units package machines, 24 box filter rods, 134 sack cut fillers, 42 pack of foils, 194 packs of cigarettes papers, 231 packs tipping papers, and others were seized by the raiding teams.

The Mission Order furnished to this paper saw BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa ordered his task force to monitor sales and /or place of business establishment mentioned under observation and surveillance for violation of bookkeeping rules and regulations particularly on non-issuance of sales invoice or receipts; to apprehend violators of revenue laws and regulations governing the activities mentioned in the preceding paragraph 1; to conduct immediate inventory-taking of the goods on hand by the aforementioned taxpayers and reconcile the same with his/its inventory lists, and other as included on the attached page.

Although Offenses Relating to Stamps in the National Internal Revenue Code entails a fine of not less than P20,000 but not more than P50,000 and an imprisonment of less than four years and but not more than eight years, other criminal cases like Forgery, Intellectual Property Code, Trade Mark, and other laws can be filed by the those offended legitimate owners of the cigarettes like Marlboro, Winston, Marvel, Mighty, Winsboro, Fortune, and Camel and the government against Calugay, the five Chinese nationals and the more than two dozens workers from Mindanao who were arrested in a factory hidden behind mango tress and a pig pen.