CHARGES will be filed this week against a Bureau of Customs (BOC) employee in the Port of Batangas, her husband, and other individuals for allegedly trying to smuggle an estimated P1.1 billion worth of illegal cigarettes in Batangas City last month.
Highly reliable sources told The Manila Times on Sunday that charges for violation of the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act (Republic Act 12022) will be filed against the suspects on Feb. 3 in Batangas City.
“It is a non-bailable offense. If found guilty, the suspects could face possible life imprisonment,” the source said.
The illegal cigarettes were seized by a team led by the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) last Dec. 31 at a container yard in Sitio 5, Barangay Balete.
The PNP-HPG earlier identified the Customs employee’s husband as the lessee of the container yard where the 14 trailer trucks containing the illegal cigarettes were found.
The BOC is conducting a parallel investigation, but the source said that the PNP-HPG will be the one filing the case.
PNP-HPG chief BGen. Hansel Marantan said there is an airtight case against the suspects, given the strong evidence and identification of key personalities involved, such as the consignees, the truckers, and other individuals behind the operation.
“We see a big chance of conviction here, if I can say 100 percent,” Marantan said during a news forum last week in Quezon City.
During the same forum, it was revealed that more than P3.3 billion worth of tobacco contraband was confiscated in back-to-back operations in January 2026.
It began with a record P1.5-billion haul in Malabon City on Jan. 2, where 18 shipping containers of unregistered imported cigarettes were uncovered by PNP operatives just a day after the P1.1 billion Batangas seizure.
Marantan noted that the Batangas bust was a collective effort of the HPG, BOC, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, and other agencies.
He described the seizure as a “big black eye to smuggling syndicates.”
Over the weekend, the BOC raided a warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga, which was found to be illegally manufacturing local cigarettes.
The warehouse had no valid permits or authority to locally manufacture cigarettes branded as “Two Moon,” along with cigarette-making machines and manufacturing paraphernalia bearing the brands Mighty, H&P, Playboy, and Carnival.
The BOC noted that the brands were the same ones that were seized in a separate operation in Batangas, indicating a possible link in the distribution and supply chain of illicit cigarettes.
Customs Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno has ordered an investigation into the reported escalation of cigarette smuggling carried out with the involvement of some officials of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS).
The investigation resulted in the relief of Intelligence Officer III Paul Oliver N. Pacunayen, chief, CIIS Field Station, PoM.
Marikina City Rep. Romero “Miro” Quimbo, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has filed House Resolution 636 seeking a congressional probe into the PNP’s seizure on New Year’s Eve in Batangas and Malabon of a total of 32 trucks allegedly carrying smuggled cigarettes worth approximately P2.6 billion.
Among those invited to the hearing were Port of Batangas District Collector Carmelita Talusan, Manila International Container Port District Collector Rizalino Jose Torralba, and Port of Manila District Collector Alexander Gerard Alviar.
Quimbo has said the apprehension of the smuggled cigarettes “confirms that organized cigarette smuggling remains a serious national problem that requires urgent action.”
The seized items correspond to P875.16 million in tax revenues that the government would have collected otherwise based on the 2026 tax rate.
Quimbo said the government has lost an estimated P25.5 billion in excise taxes due to tobacco smuggling in 2023 alone, citing a report of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
