A former congressman known for his anti-smuggling stance pushed for the approval of a Senate bill seeking to classify cigarette smuggling as economic sabotage and make the commission of this crime non-bailable with a heftier punishment and fine.
“Agricultural smuggling happens. But tobacco or cigarette smuggling is more terrible than agricultural smuggling,” declared Nograles.
House Bill 3917, the counterpart measure of Lapid’s proposed bill, had been approved on the third and final reading at the House of Representatives in December, principally authored by Senior Deputy Majority Leader Sandro Marcos and PBA Partylist Rep. Margarita Ignacia Nograles. Both bills likewise provide for imposing 30 to 40 years imprisonment, a fine of twice the fair value, and the aggregate amount of the taxes, unsettled duties, and other charges.
Nograles said the current law seemed not to deter the commission of smuggling, citing that since the implementation of the law in 2016, only one “small-time” case had been successfully prosecuted. He cited the smuggling case in Ormoc City in 2018 and was charged in 2019.Although the Regional Trial Court judge, in its June 2020 decision, slapped the owner of the smuggled cigarettes with a three-year jail term, the fine was reduced to P35.4 million from the original fine of P354 million.
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