Duterte cites Faeldon tip vs. cigarette trader

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the inauguration of the dusitD2 Davao Hotel in Davao City on September 6, 2019. JOEY DALUMPINES/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

NAGA CITY, Cebu – President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Friday cited the contribution of former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Nicanor Faeldon to the government when he was still commissioner of the Bureau of Customs.

Duterte narrated how Faeldon’s tip-off resulted in the raid on warehouses and yielded cigarettes with fake tax stamps.

Faeldon would have made a huge sum of money if he negotiated with the businessman by himself but opted to report it, which later forced the businessman to pay PHP37 billion of back taxes.

“Faeldon, tarong na nga tawo. I still believe in him. May panahon nga naay usa ka negosyante ngari (duha) ka bodega ang sigarilyo, peke ang stamp. It was Faeldon ang nagserbato nako, sir naay duha ka (warehouse). Ug naghilom lang na nangayo siya, (it) would made (him) millions (He is an upright man. I still believe in him. There was a day when a businessman had two warehouse of cigarettes carrying fake tax stamps. It was Faeldon who tipped me off, sir, two warehouses were found. If he silently talked to the owner and asked for himself, it would made him millions),” Duterte recalled during his speech during the groundbreaking ceremony of Naga Permanent Housing Project for September 2018 landslide victims, in this southern city in Cebu.

“We earned (through payment of back taxes and penalties) because of that effort by Faeldon. We earned PHP37 billion,” the President said.

Duterte was referring to the raid conducted by the BOC against the two warehouses of Mighty Corporation, the manufacturer of Mighty and Marvel cigarette brands, inside the Nazarene Trading Co. on Kilometer 64, Matimbubong village, San Ildefonso town of Bulacan in March 2017.

The fake BIR tax stamps, along with the cigarettes, were seized, while the owner and top executives were charged by the Bureau of Internal in a PHP9.564-billion tax-evasion case before the Department of Justice for allegedly using fake tax stamps on their products to evade payment of excise tax to the government.

Faeldon revealed to the media in an interview after the raid that the seized cigarettes, totaling 160,000 master cases and 80 million cigarette packs, had an estimated street value of PHP4 billion.

“Ug giingnan nako unsa pay imong gihuwat i-raid. Pag-raid giingnan nako ang tag-iya… aregloha nang imong (kaso). It can be taxes, can be, you know subject to the (investigation), ayuha nang imong (taxes and penalty) kay dili gani, I will see to it nga malata ka gyud sa prisohan (And I told him, what are you waiting for, you conduct raid. After the raid, I asked the owner to settle his case. It can be taxes, you know subject to investigation, settle you taxes and penalties, as failure to do so, I will see to it that you will rot in jail),” the President said.