Group urges gov’t to dig deeper into Mighty case

Mighty Corp. owner Alex Wong Chu King. Marianne Bermudez/INQUIRER

The American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (Amcham) has urged the Duterte administration to dig deeper into the tax-evasion controversy surrounding cigarette products, noting that this might only be the “tip of the iceberg.”

In a statement, Amcham said the government should continue pursuing its investigation of local cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corp., which has been recently caught in the limelight for possible tax evasion and attempted bribery.

“With these developments, Amcham encourages the Philippine government to proceed vigorously to investigate the case against the manufacturer as the recent seizures may be the tip of an iceberg of tax evasion going back several years,” Amcham said.

“Based on the investigation, we call upon the government to prosecute the case for tax evasion and attempted bribery. Action should also be taken against government officials who may be involved in facilitating the tax evasion,” the business group added, careful not to drop any names.

The government has been at odds as to how to approach the problem. Last week, President Duterte said the government might instead settle with Mighty if the cigarette firm would pay P3-5 billion. However, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said “there will be no settlement.”

In an apparent support for the finance department’s decision to pursue charges, Amcham said that it was “especially important to strongly enforce existing revenue laws and to expand the tax base.”

The finance chief earlier said that the DOF as well as the Bureaus of Customs and of Internal Revenue had yet to determine Mighty’s total unpaid excise taxes.

Nongovernment Action for Economic Reforms said in a statement last week that Mighty’s tax liabilities could run up to P15 billion based on the volume of cigarette packs that bore fake stamps earlier confiscated by the BOC and the BIR in Zamboanga, Pampanga, General Santos City, Cebu and Tacloban City. —Roy Stephen C. Canivel