SAN ANTONIO, Nueva Ecija – Police arrested a 33-year-old businessman who was allegedly caught “red-handed” while trying to transport several boxes of suspected fake cigarettes amounting to P17,290 during an “Oplan Sita” operation here.

In a report to provincial police head Col. Richard V. Caballero, town police chief Major Rommel C. Nabong said the suspect, a gown rental shop owner, of Sitio Bantug, Barangay San Francisco, this town, was apprehended after being flagged down along the San Antonio-Zaragosa Road on Tuesday at 1:10 p.m. here.

The trader, who was driving a silver Kia Pride sedan, was found transporting two large boxes.

However, when asked by the operating lawmen to open said boxes, it was discovered that they contained several boxes of alleged fake cigarettes consisting of 50 reams of H&P and 23 reams of Two Moon cigarettes, all valued at P17,290.

Nabong said his men arrested the suspect after he failed to present the required documents for his cargo.

His vehicle and the confiscated items were brought to the police station for documentation and proper disposition while appropriate charges were being readied for inquest filing against him before the provincial prosecutor’s office.

Nabong said the intensified “Oplan Sita” operations being conducted by his office were also in compliance with the marching orders of Mayor Arvin C. Salonga for a tighter crackdown against the proliferation and sale of fake cigarettes in the town.

It would be recalled that Salonga, president of the 27-man strong League of Municipalities of the Philippines-Nueva Ecija chapter, earlier ordered the total crackdown in full support of the campaign against fake cigarettes being spearheaded by Gov. Aurelio M. Umali and the provincial police office.

It was reported that the illicit cigarette trading has caused the province to lose at least P750 million during last year’s first six months, as earlier confirmed by the Philippine Tobacco Institute.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Steve A. Gosuico