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BACOLOR, Pampanga - An estimated P28 million worth of fake
cigarettes were confiscated in a raid by Criminal Investigation and
Detection Group (CIDG) agents from a factory allegedly owned by a Chinese
inside the Bacolor export processing zone in barangay Calibutbut here on
Wednesday.
The raiders were led by Insp. Joel de
Mesa. They were implementing dirt cheap davidoff
cigarettes
a search warrant issued by Judge Pedro Sunga Jr. on
Foreitrans Manufacturing Corp..
Also with the team were Bacolor policemen headed by Mayor
Romeo Dungca and Chief Insp. David Briones, chief of the Bacolor police.
The CIDG, the Bacolor Mayor’s Office and a Makati-based
private detective company hired by the real manufacturers of the
export-quality cigarettes have been monitoring the firm’s operations for
the past two months.
They found that Foreitrans manufactures cigarettes branded
“Dageta” but its size, color and packaging is similar with the brand
“Davidoff Classic,” a product exclusively exported by Imperial Tobacco
Inc.
Foreitrans was also found to have been providing false
designation of origin by printing on every pack Dageta cigarettes the
caption “Made in Germany.”
The CIDG said all products manufactured
in the country even if they DAVIDOFF
ultra carry foreign brands should be presented to the market as “Made in
the Philippines” as provided in the Intellectual Property Code of the
Philippines.
It was also discovered that Foreitrans exports the
cigarettes to Taiwan, shipping an estimated P10 million worth of the
products every week.
Sources from the company manufacturing the Davidoff Classic
cigarettes told Dungca the case was their first in the Philippines. Most
of the counterfeits come from China.
“We work with the government because it is also losing
millions of pesos in tax revenues owing to these illegal activities,” he
quoted the source as saying.
Sunga wants the Philippine Export Zone Authority to be
investigated claiming that products manufactured inside the zone should be
carefully checked before these could be transported out and it seems
Foreitrans had not undergone any checks.
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