00:00Illegal cigarette boxes were confiscated by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and CIDG in an illegal cigarette factory in San Rafael, Bulacan.
00:13The smugglers were forced to leave the factory.
00:18This is not registered at all.
00:20That's why this operation is illegal.
00:25Because when a cigarette is manufactured, it needs to be registered,
00:30including the machines and the brands that are registered.
00:33Here, all of our earnings are not registered and are illegally operated.
00:38Most of the brands that are placed in the boxes of Yossi are imported.
00:42But for those who don't know, these are just made in the Philippines.
00:47The so-called cigarettes do not have BIR stamps.
00:50And if they do, they are fake.
00:53According to BIR, the factory in San Rafael, Bulacan produces and sells 750,000 packs a day.
01:03This is how big a machine is used in an illegal cigarette factory here in San Rafael, Bulacan.
01:10The brands of cigarettes that are produced here cannot be found in Metro Manila.
01:15But it is widely sold in Central Luzon and Mindanao.
01:21The authorities also invaded the five warehouses in Valenzuela that were owned by the illegal Yossi.
01:27Here, the illegal cigarettes from San Rafael, Bulacan were confiscated.
01:33But only three of the warehouses were profited.
01:36In the warehouse in Barangay Ugong, Valenzuela, which was owned by one of the men of the authorities,
01:4114,200 master cases of fake cigarettes were confiscated.
01:48Of all the men of the authorities, CIDG and BIR confiscated more than 150 employees.
01:56Most of them were Filipino employees from Mindanao.
02:01Four of them were Chinese.
02:05For the people of Mindanao, they were promised construction work and a bus driver.
02:11But they did not believe that they would be fined for illegal activities.
02:16They were given an underpaid salary of 500 pesos a day.
02:23Everything is free. Sleep, food, everything is free.
02:27In Mindanao, it is only 250 pesos a day.
02:32Anyone can pay for that.
02:34They were always promised construction work and they were not allowed to go out.
02:39We found out that the three Chinese were the drivers of those trucks.
02:44They have a Philippine driver's license.
02:48We are investigating them because they have a local address.
02:52The tax liabilities of the owner of the said factory, which is currently being searched by the authorities,
03:01could reach Mindanao.
03:07Those who buy cheaper products and fake products,
03:11we should not underestimate them.
03:13Aside from the tobacco that we smoke, we also see a lot of other things.
03:18They do not have proper sanitation.
03:22Tax evasion and human trafficking is what the owner of the factory is facing.
03:27Isaiah Mirafuentes for Pambansang TV in Bagong, Philippines.
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